Master Thief
by FriTik
Summary: After being kicked out of the orphanage, a young Naruto makes some decisions on his own before the Third Hokage can reach out to him. This leads him on a path rather unexpected and filled with adventure as well as various amounts of shiny stuff.
1. Goodbye Konoha!

**Well this is an unexpected development eh?**

 **Another Naruto fanfiction.**

 **Yeah started this one awhile ago, lost interest, thought up Sealed Away in the shower and spent the rest of the night binge writing that powered on caffeine and cream puffs.**

 **Not as long a story as the one behind Lightman Legacy but you guys/gals get the point.**

 **So when I eventually post this I will probably be on vacation in Florida. I'm pre-writing a bunch of stuff so I can give you guys a number of updates by the time the end of the week comes.**

 **Things that will (probably) be updated:**

 **-Gone Ghost**

 **-Sealed Away**

 **-Village Idiots**

 **-This**

 **So look forward to those.**

 **So here's chapter one, or how Naruto screws everyone over without knowing it.**

* * *

 _Uzumaki Naruto POV, Konoha..._

Naruto wasn't quite sure when he figured out people didn't like him.

Maybe he always knew.

Whatever the case four year old Uzumaki Naruto had decided that if people in Konoha didn't like him then he had no reason to stay in Konoha.

It had not been the easiest decision to be honest but getting kicked out of the orphanage at age four to fend for yourself was perhaps one of the biggest reality checks one could receive. And by kicked he meant literally kicked, it had hurt a lot.

He had been on the streets for about a week when he realized he really didn't want to stay in the Leaf Village for the rest of his (potentially short if he couldn't find a good source of food soon) life. So after that sudden revelation he started to form a plan to leave. Also a plan to get some form of food. Apparently there were these things called ryo with numbers on them that were very important for getting food. Also clothes. Everything really as it turned out.

So it was Naruto began looking into how exactly to get himself money. As it turned out most people made money doing these annoying things called jobs in order to earn an honest living. What kind of annoying crap was that? This was supposed to be a ninja village or something right? Why would anyone try and be honest about earning money?

Not that Naruto knew much about being a ninja, other than the fact that he wanted to be one. It was just so cool!

But that was besides the point. The current problem was acquiring food and money. After that he had to figure out how to leave Konoha. He could worry about being the coolest later.

So Naruto watched and waited, occasionally a good piece of food would be dropped out of a bag or roll away from a wagon. Sometimes he got lucky and found someone willing to sell to him, even if they weren't exactly pleasent about it. Money on the other hand was a tad more difficult to gather. Most people tended to keep it in their pockets or inside pouches inside their pockets.

Surprisingly people didn't alway pay attention to their money. That didn't make a lot of sense to Naruto, if he had money he would always keep an eye on it. So being the kind soul he was, Naruto decided to relieve people of their somewhat ignored funds thereby putting them into the hands of someone who would take better care of it.

In other words he started pick-pocketing people.

His first attempt was less than stellar.

It had seemed simple enough. Walk up to someone reach into their pocket and take their money.

The man in question was speaking with a shopkeeper, haggling over the price of a pair of sandals.

"These are clearly of a superior make sir!" The merchant said aghast.

"And I'm telling you." the buyer jabbed his finger. "That golden shit from kami's ass is still shit."

Naruto quietly snuck up behind the rude man and saw a wallet hanging out of his back pocket. Problem is it was kind of high up (for a four year old anyway.) He had to stand on his tiptoes to be able to reach it. The edge eluded him, just out of his grip.

He gave a little hop and managed to get a firm grasp on the wallet. With a grin he yanked pulling it out of the pocket. He was not able to celebrate however as the man he had just taken it from froze and began to turn.

Naruto made the smart choice and took off as fast his legs could carry him. He heard a shout of "Hey you!", but kept on running, wallet clutched between his hands. He didn't stop running until he made it to the alleyway he normally stayed in. It didn't smell as bad as some of the others and there were a few boxes that gave some form of shelter on rainy days.

He collapsed against the wall and took some deep gasping breaths. He stared at the wallet in his hand. He had almost been caught. People already didn't like him, what would they do to him if they caught him stealing. He flinched just thinking about the possibilities. Maybe he shouldn't even try?

No. He narrowed his eyes. Like hell he would just let them decide what he did. Why should he care about what they thought of him. He was Uzumaki Naruto and this was his life and no one had any right to make his decisions for him, dattebayo!

It was a bit difficult at first and he nearly got himself caught numerous times in the beginning but he soon started learning the tips and tricks for getting away with it.

For starters, no Shinobi and Kunoichi. They're smarter than civilians. Maybe when he was better at it but for the time being he wasn't going to risk giving a trained killer the excuse to beat the shit out of him. Whatever shit was, but from the context he'd heard it used in, it was not good.

Also a distracted victim is an easy victim. It was quite simple to set things up so a canopy falls on a stall or a vendor table collapsed. Then as people were staring just slip in and nab a few pouches out of pockets.

Always having an escape plan was also a good idea. While he had not had the misfortune of getting caught just yet, he had gone through a few that he barely dodged by the skin of his teeth. If necessary he had to be ready to abandon an entire venture at anytime throughout the duration.

And that was just the basics.

Occasionally he would run into other kids on the streets. They were there for a variety of reasons but it seemed like none had been kicked out of the orphanage like had. Those he talked to agreed it was weird that there was so much dislike towards him specifically. He never really became friends with any of them but at least they treated him like a person.

Eventually, through his various means of gathering cash he amassed quite a bit. Enough to buy food and clothes for awhile anyway. Unfortunately, Konoha lacked merchants who were willing to sell him the goods he needed to survive at a fair price, if at all.

So he looped back to wanting to leave Konoha. Which seemed it would be notably more difficult than he first assumed due to the fact it was, well, a _ninja_ village. But that was nothing a little bit of planning and initiative couldn't solve!

He noticed that occasionally foreign merchants came into Konoha. He would normally be able to buy from them before they left and they were far less hostile than the local sellers. Normally these merchants traveled in groups and would have wagon caravans to transport their goods and families if they had them.

So he waited until a caravan was preparing to leave the village. The day of departure he gathered up what he had (his ryo, some food and a set of extra clothes) and sneaked onto one of the wagons used solely for storage. He hid himself under a few boxes and a rug, he had to wait for a couple hours but eventually the wagon began rolling away. He couldn't stop the knot from forming in his stomach at the paranoia that someone would notice him and kick him out.

Naruto briefly wondered if anyone in Konoha would miss him or even notice he was gone.

Nah, nobody would care.

* * *

 _Sarutobi Hiruzen POV, Konoha..._

At this point in his life, Sarutobi Hiruzen prided himself in maintaining a level head and not lashing out at those who upset him.

This was one of those times his patience was tested.

"What do you mean you have no idea where he is?" Hiruzen asked, allowing a twinge of annoyance to enter his voice to show his displeasure.

"I mean I have no idea where he is sir." Inu responded and despite his neutral tone, his body language indicated he was more than a little peeved.

"Clearly. Perhaps I should have elaborated, I wish to know how this could have been allowed to happen and why I was not told of it sooner." He clarified.

"I- I don't know sir." Inu admitted. "I've only recently noticed discrepancies in the reports I've been getting from the squad set to watch the orphanage. When I looked into I discovered that the matron had removed him from her care for a variety of reasons ranging from bad behaviour, to concerns for the health of the other children. I did a background check into the squad and more than a few of them lost close family members in the Kyuubi attack."

Hiruzen sighed and leaned back in the chair. He should have known this could've happened. Too many people had ill-will towards the boy for what he contained, some not seeing the difference between the prison and prisoner. Others knew he was just a child but were reluctant to allow themselves or children near him due to concerns at how well the seal would stand against the test of time. He should have known that Minato's last request would go unfulfilled. The man had been brilliant and powerful but he always was a tad naive when it came to human nature.

"Have you begun searching for him?" Hiruzen asked the ANBU captain.

"I have squads searching now but he was removed from the orphanage months ago. For all we know he could b-" Inu stopped and swallowed. "He could be dead by now sir."

"Keep searching, I won't accept it until I see a body. Also bring the squad that was supposed to watching him and the orphan matron to T&I, I want a full interrogation, see if it was completely of their own free will that they allowed this to happen and find out if they know what happened to him after."

Inu nodded and said "Hai." Before departing via shunshin.

Hiruzen sighed and turned to look out the window towards his chosen successor's face. He felt regret naw at him as he thought about the man dying wish and how people had stomped on it. Now the man's son was missing and possibly dead. He should have personally checked up on the boy. He could only think of what could happen if Iwa got their hands on him.

* * *

 _Shimura Danzo POV, Below Konoha..._

Danzo was not a happy man right now.

True he rarely experienced joy at this time in his life, but that was besides the point.

The point was that the village's Jinchuuriki was missing.

He had just received word moments before that the boys "protectors" had shirked their duties and had allowed him to be forced out of the orphanage. Personally, Danzo could approve of such treatment as it would lead the child to become more malleable if he was shown even the smallest bit of positive attention. But the fact that the it would drive the child to dislike Konoha was unacceptable and would have to be remedied. Professionally however Danzo wanted to flay the men for ignoring their duty do to emotional decisions.

His Root ANBU would never be caught disobeying orders like that. And it was because of those men's actions that the Jinchuuriki was now missing. As in what could potentially be the village's greatest asset was now missing and potentially dead.

Upon receiving the report Danzo had called for some of his best operatives.

"You will search the entire village. If you cannot find the Jinchuuriki within a week's time report back to me for updated orders." He directed at his subordinates.

"Hai Lord Danzo." Was the simultaneous acceptance of his order. They had no qualms with being sent out to search for the weapon on their master's orders. That was what they were trained for after all. They had no problem with retrieving the child most others foolishly saw as "the demon".

They departed and Danzo was left to stew in his thoughts. The fact that Hiruzen had naively thought that the boy would be accepted as the hero the Yondaime had wanted him to be seen as was folly. Now because of that folly the village may have just lost one of it's greatest weapons. Danzo silently swore that if his Root found the boy first he would train him into the villages greatest asset.

He paused for a moment and entertain the idea of Konoha's more legitimate forces locating the Jinchuuriki first. He could still use this event to turn things in his favor siting Hiruzen's failures with the boy thus far as reason for him to be placed under his own authority. He could probably sway the council to his way of thinking but there was also the underlying concern that Hiruzen's failures would cause him to regrow the backbone he somehow lost as he entered his elder years.

Of course there was also the rather concerning possibility that the Jinchuuriki was dead rendering the whole matter moot and costing Konoha a powerful weapon. If that was indeed the case Danzo was very tempted to have some citizens… _removed_.

Then again there was the other possibility that the asset was alive and had been abducted by a rival village thus weakening Konoha and strengthening its enemies, all of which still had their respective Bijuu/Jinchuuriki. The addition of the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki to those ranks would be a very unfortunate development.

Because, as much as Danzo hated to admit it, Konoha was weak right now. The village had lost a large portion of its shinobi force during the Kyuubi attack along with the Forth Hokage and previous Jinchuuriki who had been a force to be reckoned with in her own right. To be honest for holding the title of the strongest Shinobi village they did not have much to show for it. Hiruzen was getting on his years, Jiraiya was rarely in the village because of his spy network, Tsunade was off Kami knows where drinking her life away and Orochimaru had become a missing nin.

All it would take was a few well placed and timed attacks and Konoha would be at the other nations' mercy. This could not be allowed to stand. Danzo needed to find a way to keep the Leaf Village strong, but how?

A large number of ideas ran through his mind. Each of them rather morally questionable but, that was beside the point. Danzo squashed down what small fractured shadow remained of his conscious.

It was for the good of the village after all.

* * *

 _Jiraiya POV, Grass Country..._

Jiraiya had actually been doing important stuff when he got the message from his Sensei.

Really, he was!

In fact there wasn't even a Hot Spring or Bookstore in the town he was in!

He had actually been conferring with a man who ran a little antiques shop on the corner. The man was indebted to him because of a mission he had done years ago for half price in the assurance that the man would give him information that might prove useful for him.

The town was on the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Grass. His informant had heard rumors of suspicious activity happening in the Land of Earth and he was looking into it.

Then he had received Hiruzen's message.

Naruto had gone ago apparently and no who cared had found out until he was long gone.

So here he was in the middle of nowhere and his godson could potentially be dead or who knows what. Kami the kid was four, how the hell had they managed to lose track of a four year old?

He shouldn't have left the kid alone but damnit he had his reasons. He couldn't just drag the kid around as he went about his duty as Konoha's spymaster, not to mention the kid (through no fault of his own) reminded Jiraiya of everything he had lost the day the Kyuubi attacked. He didn't blame the kid but it hurt just to look at him, he reminded him so much of his parents.

And now the kid was missing because Jiraiya had shirked his duties as his Godfather.

He could never face Minato and Kushina in the afterlife if something had happened to their son because he hadn't been around to take care of him.

With a sense of determination he set off towards Konoha. So determined was he, that he didn't even consider stopping at a hot spring for research.

Okay the idea did cross his mind but he never acted on it.

* * *

 _Uzumaki Naruto POV, Somewhere in the Land of Hot Water..._

Naruto groaned as he pulled himself out of the back of the wagon. They had been traveling for three weeks straight before they finally stopped. He had snuck out a few times when they stopped to let the horses rest, to go to the bathroom and change or wash his clothes in a nearby water source. He had used up his food supply after the first week and had to resort to pulling some freeze dried stuff out of one of the crates. It tasted terrible but it kept him alive.

He hobbled away from the caravan before anyone could notice him and ducked into a nearby alleyway to rest on a ground that wasn't constantly moving underneath him. He silently decided that he was never getting on a carriage again unless he had no other choice. Going by foot my take longer but at least you didn't feel like throwing up afterwards.

When Naruto finally regulated his breathing and did not feel like throwing up he pulled his bag over his shoulder and walked down the alleyway towards the other end that opened into a different street.

He paused at the edge and stared at the completely different skyline. This was a new place where people had never seen him before. Would they dislike him like the villagers did? Would living here be any better than living in Konoha?

Only one way to find out. He smiled and walked into the future.

* * *

 **Yeah this actually started out as a completely different story then I realized I could work with this.**

 **Fun fact this was going to be my first Naruto Fanfic but I kinda lost interest in the original idea.**

 **Speaking of Naruto fanfics I gotta ask.**

 **What the fuck?**

 **No seriously what the actual fuck? Gone Ghost, a story which I have put a lot of time, effort and care into and basically placed me as an author on this site, has nearly been overtaken in follows and favorites by Sealed Away. A story that has literally one sixth as many words and most of which was written on a weekend I had nothing else to do with myself on.**

 **I mean… just… just… HOW?!**

 **Ya know what forget it. If I wanted to rant about Naruto fanfics we'd be here all day.**

 **Whatever.**

 **Until next time, see ya!**

 **~FriTik**

 **R &R**


	2. Life of a Street Urchin

**Chapter two is here.**

 **You may commence with the pleasantries.**

 **Also decided to google translate the Japanese names for the countries in Naruto and Hi no Kuni translates to Girl.**

 **Yeah. So I'm just gonna use english for those.**

 **I'm not really sure when I started using the japanese names for stuff but I think I'll ignore the honorifics because constantly remembering to add those correctly gives me a headache.**

 **So none of that in this story. Just things like lord and lady and sensei. If you don't like that don't read.**

 **Those who will continue to read, enjoy!**

* * *

 _Uzumaki Naruto, Land of Hot Water…_

His first couple of weeks out of Konoha, Naruto felt completely paranoid.

No one was glaring at him or muttering obscenities under their breaths or avoiding him like he was the plague. In fact some people gave him kind looks and a couple of parents actually asked him where his were in a concerned tone of voice.

It was a mystifying experience.

He wondered what made these people different from Konoha. What was it about him that made the people in Konoha hate him so much yet no one here seemed to pick up on.

Every time he turned around he expected to see an angry glare, hear a rude comment directed towards him, something normal. Instead while people tended to not pay too much attention to him, they certainly didn't act like he didn't exist.

Unfortunately this made stealing a tad more difficult.

While this threw him off at first he quickly managed to find work arounds. He discovered that he was in fact, cute. An adorable little four year old in fact. Who would suspect such a cute kid of pilfering your money?

Once again he ran into other street urchins like in Konoha, the difference was they weren't as cautious due to the fact it wasn't a ninja village. These other urchins mostly kept to themselves like he did but a few worked in groups to distract and rob. Occasionally he got involved and lended a hand (in exchange for a portion of course). But sometimes the younger ones would group together and try and work out how to read. They all accepted that they needed to learn how if they wanted to do anything of value.

So while it was strange he certainly got in the swing of things. A few months after he arrived in this town (which was called Pallet Town he later discovered) he saw a newsletter. At the time he was still trying to teach himself to read so he only picked up a few words. What he read though was something about stealing and thieves. He decided to bring it to the next "Reading Class".

"Yeah I gots no clue what any of tha' says." One boy commented.

"I think tha' word's "complaint"." A girl pointed at one.

"Dammi' whiska's why you have to bring hard 'tuff." Another boy complained to which Naruto stuck his tongue out in response.

After a couple hours of trying to work it out they finally managed to piece together that someone or someones was complaining about getting robbed. That did not bode well.

"Maybe we should hide out for 'while?' A different girl suggested.

"I gots stuff to last me through a few moons." The first boy agreed.

It was with mutual consent that the youngest thieves in Pallet agreed to stop their stealing for at least two months. Potentially more depending on the state of things.

However the older generations did not get the memo and kept up with their normal activities.

Within a month most of them had been arrested and those that hadn't were on the run and would have to leave town if they wanted to continue their stealing.

The younger kids had agreed after the first month to wait an additional one onto the original two just in case things were still in hot water by then. When the time was up they were the only thieves left in town and had to work more carefully to avoid being caught. The group had begun working together more often to make sure that they got away cleanly. Usually teams of three. One on lookout, one as distraction and one to do the job.

It worked like a charm and by the time Naruto was five he had amassed quite the stash. There was a silent agreement that everyone was entitled to their own hideout and stash and that no one else was to investigate or go looking for it without permission from the owner.

But apparently things weren't meant to last. At least not in the way they were now.

Naruto had been sitting on the top of a wall eating an apple when he saw someone about half a dozen years older than him trudge by looking quite depressed.

"Stupid civilians, stupid sensei and stupid training." The kid was muttering. "We finally get a C-rank and what is it? To go and pick up the leftovers that the local police force didn't catch."

He was a boy around twelve or so if Naruto were to guess. He had brown hair that dipped in front of his eyes. But that wasn't what Naruto noticed, no what he noticed was the hitai-ate wrapped around the boy's upper arm.

His first thought was panic. He had not forgotten his time in Konoha and immediately thought that they had found him to bring him back to that place. But then he started thinking more rationally. First of all the guy was complaining about the thievery in the area, which admittedly he was a part of but that was besides the point. Also the symbol on the metal part wasn't the spiral leaf he remembered from Konoha.

So not a Konoha ninja then. But if not from there, where was he from then?

Suddenly the older boy froze. He then whipped around and chucked a kunai at Naruto who yelped and toppled off the wall face first. Thankfully he avoided the kunai but the pavement was not exactly soft.

"Hey wha' the heck is wrong with ya, 'ttebayo" Naruto complained as he pulled himself up.

"Oh shit you're just a little brat." The ninja admitted.

"Wha's that supposed to mean?" Naruto said angrily getting to his feet and glaring.

"I thought you were sneaking up on me to try and attack me." The boy defended his actions.

"I was just sittin' on that wall. Eatin' an apple. As you walked by. Trust me if I didn't want you to see me ya wouldn' have." Naruto told him.

"Oh yeah and how do you bet?" The ninja asked him. He pointed at the hitai-ate on his arm. "This means I'm a ninja! A brat like you couldn't hide from me if you tried"

"But I already did. And I wasn't tryin' to hide." Naruto pointed out helpfully.

"..." The ninja glared at him. "Shut up…"

"Nyeh." Naruto stuck his tongue out and turned around and started walking away.

"Where do you think your going brat?!" The older kid called. "I wasn't done talking to you!"

"Wha' ya wanna talk about?" Naruto asked.

"Umm, well…" The boy seemed to realize he did not have anything else to say but he certainly did not want to be talked down to by a little kid. "Oh yeah, have you seen anything suspicious going on around here?" Oh it was one of those kinds of guys.

"I ain't seen nothin'" Naruto told him with a cheerful smile. It was practiced of course. That was what you said when people came asking about anything that might be considered "illegal" whatever that was.

"Uh huh." The boy stared at him clearly not believing. Naruto clearly had to change the subject to avoid scrutiny. He had never tested himself out under too much pressure and was not about to start now.

"So you're a ninja?" Naruto asked him.

The kid perked up. "Heck yeah I am!" He straightened up proudly. "I'm gonna be one of the best ninja around! Who cares if Yu isn't one of the big five. I'll show them anyway!"

"Yu?" Naruto asked legitimately confused.

"Yeah Yugakure, you know the Village Hidden in the Hot Springs?" The boy asked clearly expecting recognition. "Only ninja village in the entire country?"

"I didn' know this country had ninja." Naruto shrugged but was already considering the possibilities. He still thought that being a ninja would be awesome but without Konoha he wouldn't be able to achieve such a career. So he had all but given up on the dream but maybe…

"How could you not know?" The kid sounded incredulous.

"Nobody told me?" Naruto suggested.

"Well consider yourself told." The boy patted Naruto's head. "Remember the name Hikari Satoshi! Because he'll be the best ninja the world has ever known!" the now identified Satoshi told him.

"How do ya know you'll be the best?" Naruto asked him, "Maybe I'll become a ninja and become even cooler than you!" he pointed up at the taller boys face.

"A little brat like you?" Satoshi rolled his eyes. "I'd like to see you try!"

"Fine I will!" Naruto told him before stomping off. He had achieved exactly what he wanted to with that conversation. Now then the question was what to do next. Becoming a ninja would certainly be cool but he was quite pleased with his life right now. Sure it wasn't the most elegant way of life considering his hideout was in an old and (thankfully) disused sewer. It had taken weeks to get rid of the smell…

Yeah on second thought he probably should head to Yu. At least he wouldn't be living in a sewer anymore. Besides he didn't have to entirely give up his way of life, he had lived rather similarly to the way he did now back in Konoha, Yu couldn't be that much different. Well hopefully without the intense dislike towards himself.

But how to go about getting there? It was a _hidden_ village for a reason.

Hmm…

Maybe Satoshi wouldn't mind having someone watching his back...

* * *

 _Sarutobi Hiruzen POV, Konoha…_

It had been the more than half a year since Uzumaki Naruto had been removed from the orphanage without Hiruzen's knowledge.

Those responsible for the removal, either via neglect in the case of the ANBU guards or action in the case of the Orphan Matron, had been brought into T&I and interrogated to see if they had ulterior motives. From what Morino Ibiki had learned they had acted of their own free will out of hatred for what the child contained. _If_ he still contained it at this point.

True it was a big 'if' but the possibility was still there. The seal on Naruto had been designed so that when the boy died the beast would go down with him. Unfortunately, it was unknown if the seal would work properly this early in the boy's life. It had also been designed to steal the Kyuubi's chakra and convert it into Naruto's which would theoretically result in massive reserves for the boy. But without the child here to have the seal checked up on it was impossible to know if it worked properly.

While there had not been a body found, it was still possible the boy was dead. If he was and the seal had not worked as designed then it was very likely the Kyuubi could reform in a short number of years. If and when that happened Hiruzen did not even wish to consider what could occur as a result.

About a month after he had discovered the boys disappearance and three after Naruto had been removed from the orphanage Hiruzen had held a meeting with The Advisory Council, the Shinobi Council, and the Civilian Council. (Why were there so many councils again?)

It went as well as could be expected.

 _Flashback No Jutsu_

"I don't understand the concern Lord Hokage." One civilian with absolutely no civilian background comment but to be fair he did sound legitimately confused. "Is it not a good thing that the demon is dead?"

A number of other civilians and a few no-name clan heads muttered and nodded in agreement and Hiruzen had to reign in his anger at the sheer disability to understand. Instead he decided to make them sweat a little.

"Oh that would be a good thing if the Kyuubi was dead." He took a breath of his pipe. "Except that since it is Naruto who may dead and if so the Kyuubi is probably already starting to reform." A bluff of course but at the very least he could make them sweat. Not to mention it was most certainly not a good thing for the Kyuubi to be dead as that left Konoha without a Bijuu and therefore weakened in the eyes of the other villages.

"W-what?" Another civilian stuttered in shock and fear.

"I attempted to explain it to you four years ago and you did not listen therefore I shall attempt to do so again." Hiruzen dictated. "Naruto is not the Kyuubi, he is the container for the Kyuubi. Without him the demon fox would be free to wreak havoc again."

Someone snorted with obvious disbelief. "You expect us to believe that some ink on a child could hold back a monster like the Kyuubi?"

"Fortunately it does not matter what you believe as it is a fact." Hiruzen smiled coldly. "As it is also fact that if Uzumaki Naruto is dead that Kyuubi could very well be reforming at this very moment. So I must ask if _anyone_ has any idea of where he might be, now would be a very good time to speak up."

 _Flashback Kai_

That meeting had not truly gained him much information as many, even some of the clan heads, preferred to just forget about the child. He supposed he could understand especially if one went down to the truth of it. The people of Konoha loved the Fourth and put him on an untouchable pedestal. The idea that he had been willing to sacrifice an innocent child to defeat the Kyuubi would shake some to the core.

While that did not entirely excuse their treatment and opinions of Naruto it at least gave some insight into the mentality behind it. Especially among the civilians who romanticized the Shinobi way of life and had no ideas of the horrors it entailed. Just look at what had happened to ninja like Senju Tsunade and Hatake Kakashi.

Speaking of ninja, Jiraiya had returned not long after Hiruzen had sent for him. The man had been most displeased with the fact his Godson, who he had not been able to take in for multiple reasons, some of them being political and at Hiruzen's behest, was missing.

Jiraiya had nearly fallen into a depression when Hiruzen told him there was a good possibility of Naruto being dead. But thankfully he had also point out to his former student that there was a possibility of his godson being alive and just outside the village, perhaps because he had fled or perhaps he because had been kidnapped.

Whatever the case he had managed to give Jiraiya some hope in a way that allowed him to continue managing his spy network while simultaneously working towards a goal that kept him from falling into a similar state to his teammate.

As much as Hiruzen hated to admit it, the loss of Naruto, while greatly unsettling, could not be a primary concern at the moment. Konoha was still recovering from the Kyuubi attack and tensions had been high as peace talks with Kumo had begun. Personally he wanted to believe that Kumo truly had good intentions but a lifetime of Shinobi training and war had taught him otherwise. That wasn't even including the rising tensions with the Uchiha Clan.

Hiruzen glared at the pile of neatly stacked papers that sat waiting on his desk. He was really getting too old for this job.

* * *

 _Naruto POV…_

Let it be known following ninja around is not a good idea. More specifically it is _never_ a good idea.

Especially if you're not a ninja.

Naruto had discovered this the hard way. How?

By being caught following a ninja.

In hindsight he really should have planned this out better, but after meeting Satoshi he had assumed the others would be just as neglectful in their study of their surroundings. That was a big mistake on his part.

He had attempted to follow Satoshi as the boy continued onwards. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, the boy hadn't picked up on the young pick pocket sneaking after him, maintaining a safe distance behind of course.

After about half an hour of completely aimless wandering (in Naruto's opinion anyway) Satoshi had finally met up with the rest of his team. Or at least Naruto had assumed that at first.

The three ninja that Naruto could see started conversing but he was unable to hear a word they were saying from his safe distance on a rooftop roughly one block away. He probably should have just stayed there but dammit he wanted to know what they were saying!

So, staying out of the view field of the three ninja, Naruto shimmied down the side of building he was on. He was careful to use the side with the most loose bricks so he had enough handholds to grab onto on the way down.

Very stealthily he snuck along the side of the building. His ratted out t-shirt and shorts didn't do much for blending in but at least he wasn't wearing orange (even if it was an awesome color).

He was just around the corner from the group when he could finally hear what they were saying.

"-eriously where is he? We were supposed to meet him here like an hour ago!" It was hard to tell but it sounded like that Satoshi guy talking.

"Actually he was supposed to arrive and converse with us ten minutes ago but yes he is late." Another voice spoke up.

Naruto narrowed his eyes wondering who they were talking another member of their team? But that did bring up the question where was this fourth member.

"Hey there whatcha up to kid?" A mockingly pleasant deep voice asked

Naruto froze and slowly turned around and then looked up.

...and up.

...and wow this guy was tall.

Naruto put on his best 'I'm just an innocent and adorable little kid' face. "I ain't doin' nuthin." He stated firmly.

"And I'm the tooth fairy." The adult. with a headband that looked worryingly like the one worn by Satoshi, deadpanned at him.

"Really? Wow mister tooth fairy, how come you never came for that tooth I lost?" Naruto asked trying to figure out how to get out of this situation. He hadn't planned on engaging anyone so he hadn't bothered to come up with an escape plan and it looked like he might be paying the consequences for that now.

"Smart mouth kid." The tall man said to him before scooping him up the scruff of his shirt, causing Naruto to flail his arms and legs trying to get away.

"Hey lemme go!" He whined struggling as the shirt rode up on his armpits making movement difficult.

"Why are you stalking my team." The man, who Naruto guessed was the fourth ninja the other three guys were looking for, got right to business.

Before Naruto could think up a response a voice called out "Sensei!" And Satoshi and team appeared around the corner.

"I'm here." The adult ninja told them not taking his eyes off of Naruto. "It turns out one of you had a tail following you."

Satoshi's eyes went wide and he pointed angrily at Naruto. "Hey you're that brat from before! Why were you following me!"

"Not tellin'." Naruto managed to rotate somewhat and stuck his tongue out at the younger ninja.

"Well you better get "tellin'" or you're going to get hurting." The man holding him spoke up again causing Naruto to tense.

He slowly rotated back so he was staring the full grown version in the face. He gulped as he felt a shiver run down his spine. This must be what getting caught felt like. At least he hadn't been caught stealing. That would have made this so much worse.

"I wanted to find out how to get to Yu 'ttebayo." Naruto decided to answer truthfully. Not like he had many other option at this point.

"Why?" The man asked with no noticeable change in facial expression.

"'Cause he said that it was a ninja village and I always wanted to be a ninja. 'Sides it's not like I got anythin' here for me." Naruto explained to him the best he could.

"And what would our village want with a little punk like you?" The man continued his questioning much to his team's obvious annoyance.

"Dunno." Naruto admitted. "But I can be pretty sneaky."

"Yeah right." The girl among the younger ninja snorted.

"He's been watching you three since you got here." Their sensei told them. "And not one of you noticed. So far I feel like my teaching talents would be better spent on him than you three." Naruto perked up at the serious tone but the three other kids glared.

"Unfortunately I happen to be stuck with you three." He dropped Naruto who landed ungracefully on the ground.

He glanced at Naruto again. "So I'll tell you what kid." He pulled out a sheet of folded paper out of his vest and tossed it to the blonde haired boy. "If you can get to Yu on your own using that, I'll vouch for you joining our ninja academy."

Naruto's eyes widened and dying hope rekindled in him. "Really?!" He asked excitedly.

"If you're serious about it. We could use more ninja and you certainly have the stealth for it. Besides our mission is to stop the remaining thieves in this town. It didn't say how to stop them." Naruto shifted uncomfortably at the shocked looks from the younger shinobi.

"Wait this kid-" The girl started but their sensei cut in.

"I figured that since the robberies are continuing after the local police cracked down on it that the only criminals left are the ones who are too good and the kids who were smart enough to stay away." The sensei explained before looking at Naruto one last time.

"If you do happen to find the village tell them that Kuma Hiromasa sent you there. That should get you into the academy. We need shinobi and you seem like you could be good for us. Don't waste my monthly act of kindness." The man gestured to his team who stood at attention and they moved away faster than Naruto could follow.

He stared after them a moment before unfolding the map and look at it. He didn't understand much of what was on it but he could understand what the big X on it ment. All he had to do was figure out how to get there.

He stood up and refolded the map before making his way back to his stash. He wasn't about to waste this chance.

* * *

 **Well isn't this interesting?**

 **No seriously I have never seen nor heard of a story where Naruto joins the Village Hidden in the Hot Springs. Probably because it disbanded its ninja force by the time we hear about it in the canon.**

 **I'm not exactly sure when the village got rid of their ninja force but for the sake of the story let's say it hasn't happened yet and won't for awhile..**

 **As for Hidan, this is before he became a Jashinist. Basically he's going to slowly descend into crazy until the disbanding which is gonna set him off like a pipe bomb on a puppet show.**

 **So like the name suggests Naruto is going to continue to be a thief. That won't change, what will change is that he'll have jutsu to help with that. I want to make sure he stays Naruto though because I have seen a lot of stories in which "Naruto" is someone's angsty and godlike OC with Naruto's name tacked on.**

 **Anyway let's do reviews!**

 **Guest: Glad you're excited for it!**

 **Scarease: Well that's an interesting idea and I have a similar one for Naruto in this but you'll have to wait and see.**

 **LiveForeverOrDieTrying: And once again you prove why you're better at math than me. Of course I'm sure those numbers have changed since then I'm sure but nonetheless your mathematical help has been soothing.**

 **Duskrider: That is a possibility.**

 **That's it for reviews!**

 **Moving on, I'm going to get back into my old schedule of weekly updates on saturday. Next week will be either Gone Ghost or Village Idiots and the following week will be whichever I don't do next week. After that I** _ **might**_ **update Lightman Legacy or Sealed Away.**

 **I mean it's not like I have anything else to update…**

 ***Nervously eyes the old and rickety door labeled SS***

 **So I'll see you around!**

 **~FriTik**

 **R &R**


	3. Looking to the Future

**An update a week keeps the insecurity away!**

 **At least it does for me anyway.**

 **So I want to get this out there, I will not be bashing anyone or anything in this story, or any of my stories for that matter. Felt like it was important for you guys to know.**

 **Anyway here's an update!**

* * *

 _Naruto_ _POV, His "Lair"_ …

Naruto's base/stash/home was not all that impressive to look at. In fact it was quite dingy looking, without much color at all. Fortunately it no longer smelled but that didn't say much for it.

Seriously it used to be a sewer. He wasn't quite sure why it had stopped being used as a sewer but at least it was warm and dry, comparatively to say, a box on the side of the road. Besides it wasn't too difficult to get his hands on some air fresheners and hang them up. To be honest those were even easier to steal than cash most of the time.

All it took was to simply grab one from where it was hanging, normally somewhere that normally smelled. Or if he was feeling particularly bored he would take the risk of stealing one from the little corner stores where they were sold in excess. Rows upon rows of smells and shapes of various scents and sizes.

Enough about hanging air fresheners though. While his home wasn't very homely, it was still his home. All his. Not the spare broom closet that he doesn't get to use if there's an influx in the orphanage. Not some random box left on the side of the road or in a random alleyway. Not the back of some merchant's wagon. This place was his and wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.

Unfortunately it looked like Naruto himself would be going somewhere. Most likely very soon. He was still debating asking some of his more common conspirators if they wanted to come with him. He certainly didn't really want them getting arrested, especially by ninja of all things. But he wasn't sure how to act around them. The image he presented most of the time to people was the cute, innocent little kid. He wasn't sure how to properly behave with kids his own age.

This could likely be linked to the fact that Naruto had next to no social skills, being raised in relative isolation for the first fews years of life is likely to have been complementary or even causation to this fact. Also the children his own age that he has had the pleasure of interacting with have been far from well adjusted themselves.

Put simply he knew _how_ to behave around people to project a certain aura (not that Naruto understood that he just knew how to act so he would not get caught or into trouble) of innocence. He had no idea _why_ acting as such presented these reactions. Nor would he understand, when presented with a new situation, why acting certain ways presented new responses he had never been privy to in the past.

It quite fortuitous for our protagonist in this case that he has chosen the career paths of thief and ninja as he likely had no future whatsoever as a politician. If he were to go with that road of life everyone would constantly judge him for his actions. And while he can still learn how to properly behave in public and with his better adjusted peers, his developmental years have already been spent in tangent so his socials skills will likely never reach true perfection.

Then again who wants to be perfect?

Naruto's stash was quite a cozy little spot at the end of a former sewage pipeline. He was unsure whether or not it had been the actual end for this part of the system or if it had just gone unfinished when whatever had shut down the old pipeline had occurred. Either way it was fortunate for him as there was not nearly as much… residue in the area he had set up for himself.

This area was cordoned off by a short and long foot high length of broken bricks and rocks he had collected from along the pipeline. Not all that impressive but it kept the smaller rats and mice out. Of course there were always the bigger rats to worry about, but that's another story in of itself.

As for furnishing he was the proud owner of an old wooden chair and a bedroll. He also had a broken chunk of rock that had fallen from the ceiling that he used as a table. It wasn't exactly a five star suite but it was better than what he had when he had lived in Konoha, which was basically a box and whatever else he had gotten his hands on at the time.

Speaking of his former home, as time went on, the memory of it became more and more distant. At this point he could scarcely remember anyone's face. Then again, he didn't know anyone in the village all that well. So he wasn't exactly missing out on anything or forgetting something extremely important or anything but still it was nice to remember where you came from.

Even if where you came from _sucked._

Like Konoha. _Especially_ Konoha.

If he could help it he was never, ever, going back.

No, he now had another destination and another way to become a ninja without a bunch of assholes who hated his existence. There was the small problem of not knowing how to read a map of course but that was easily remedied. Maybe. Okay he could just get someone else to read it for him but that might be a bad idea. Then again if the person was going with him like he had considered then there was no need to worry about them running off and telling people the location of the village.

So it seemed like he would have at least one traveling companion but who to ask to tag along. Actually, better question who would say yes to being asked to tag along?

There were a number of options of course but honestly he had to figure out which ones he liked the most and then ask them first. If he had to he would start going to the more annoying ones but for now he would aim for the stars. If street urchins with various low levels of skill in manners could count as stars.

He would get to that very shortly but there was a different problem that he had to deal with first. That problem being what would and better yet what _could_ he bring with him when he left?

During his time spent in Pallet, Naruto had amassed himself no small amount of currency. It was not quite a fortune but he was certainly well off.

His savings account consisted of a hole in the wall hidden behind a ratted curtain, that was filled with ryo. There was no interest gained and it was not exactly the safest but it worked better than that one kid who kept dragging a sack around with him and would "hide" it every time he had to stick around somewhere.

Naruto pulled back the old (and orange) curtain and surveyed his savings. He took some out from time to time to purchase food and sometimes clothes. Normally he would just steal what he needed but sometimes he decided to be a proper member of society.

That and he could normally pull the cute little kid act and get stuff at a cheaper price. Konoha seriously sucked in comparison. He liked his life here, and he would miss it but he did not want to live in Pallet for the rest of his life. He wanted to do something with his existence, not fade into obscurity as a no name thief in some town no one cares about once you get to generation two.

And if he needed a little help along the way, well... he did get lonely sometimes.

Naruto carefully inspected the piles of ryo in the hole. He knew he had exactly six hundred bills, or in terms of actual value, three thousand ryo. It had come from a variety of sources. From drunkards on the side of the road who actually had some cash on them to shop owners who had left their registers unattended for various reasons, normally relating to someone providing a distraction.

He started reaching for a pile of bills before he released something that was actually quite important to his plans.

How the heck was he supposed to carry all his money?

* * *

 _Naruto POV, Half an Hour later, Surface…_

Naruto grunted with effort as he pushed aside the heavy sewer drain cover in the back alley between two old and abandoned warehouses on the edge of town. Best he could tell they had been disused for decades now and the only people living around this part of town were either kids like him with nowhere else to go other than the orphanage, or were not supposed to be around there anyway.

He had left the map in his "safe" along with most of his ryo. He had brought some with him however, approximately enough to purchase a week's worse of non-perishable food and a bag to carry stuff in. This would bring his savings down a small bit but that might actually end up being a good thing in the end. It would lighten the amount of money he was bringing with him, even if the weight was going to be replaced by food. The main reason though was that if he was planning on leaving town shortly, he would rather not risk getting in trouble when he could just as easily get away with doing things legally, whatever legal means but apparently it was the way to go if you did not want to get in trouble.

It briefly occurred to him that he might be lacking the traditional education department but he just knew how to survive, he needed to know how to thrive.

Well that was something to think about in the near future.

The bag he got wasn't anything too special, just an orange backpack with a few side pouches and a clip for a "lunch box", Naruto was not quite sure what a lunch box was. Was it a box you ate for lunch? Did it come in different flavors? Where could he get one of these boxes?

He decided to avoid voicing any of these questions out loud. It would raise some other awkward questions. Questions like "Where are your parents little boy?" and "What flavor of lunch box would you like?", although if he had to pick it would be chocolate flavored, he tried that stuff once and it was _amazing_.

So now that one of his goals was completed he now needed to get the appropriate "help" for his trip.

Thinking about it, Naruto was not quite certain the kids he normally worked with to get money out of people could be called his friends. Partners or perhaps even acquaintances would perhaps be better terms for his relationship with them. It is not that he was being kept out of a friend group or anything, it was simply that none of the other kids worked specifically to make friends with each other. So he wasn't alone in his lack of proper friendships.

The closest thing he had to an actual friend however, would likely be the kind of kid that parents would warn their children to stay away from. Far away from. Kind of like himself back in Konoha but unlike himself it was not for some unknown reason that made him completely unacceptable in their eyes.

"The fuck do ya want? I'm busy shithead."

She might have had a small bit of a swearing problem.

Most of the kids Naruto knew did not like to talk about their past or where they came from. Some would just shrug and say they couldn't remember not living on the streets and those were the most talkative. He personally just did not think it mattered all that much, others were obviously curious where he came from when he just showed up one day and he told them that people didn't like him where he came from.

Tayuya was definitely in the "none of your business" group of urchins who would not talk about their past with anyone.

Naruto's first meeting with the girl had occurred when he first arrived in town. He had been trying to find somewhere to spend the first night and had been trying to figure out what the best option would be.

He had ended up trying to stay in an old abandoned building that look like it had been a shop of some kind at one point. When he had been there though it had been old rickety floorboards and quite a few battered shelves. Also a loud and pissed off redhead girl a couple years older than himself who tried to maul him.

After the first disastrous meeting he simply could not let such a violent assault stand so he decided to get revenge.

Put simply he had a rather new and unused philosophy at the time. If people gave you trouble, annoy them into submission.

Which is just what he proceeded to do.

Eventually Tayuya figured out that Naruto had not come to steal her own stolen goods and had simply been trying to find a place to stay. Not that it particularly mattered because she would have kicked him out anyway, albeit slightly less violently. But by then Naruto was staying in the sewer so he had no need of staying in Tayuya's abandoned store. That didn't mean he was just going to stop bugging her though.

Soon enough it became a constant encore. Naruto would show up, annoy Tayuya and she would chase him out in a variety of violent ways while swearing vigorously. This would then repeat the next day.

After several months of this song and dance Tayuya eventually just gave up trying to get rid of the annoying blonde kid with weird whisker marks that she was not if they were scars, birthmarks, or if the weird boy had just decided to draw whiskers on his cheeks for some reason or another. She would not ask about it because that would give him an excuse to ask something about her own past which she was not about to go talking about any time soon.

So Naruto and Tayuya would occasionally work together to rob people while Naruto found new ways to annoy her and she would prove to have a vocabulary equal if not exceeding that of a sailor's. Not exactly the most ethical or stable of relationships but if it worked, why bother messing around with it?

Now came Naruto's mission. Convincing her to come along with him on his journey to join a ninja village and become a ninja. Which was exceedingly cool and exciting but how to make Tayuya go along with his idea, because he knew she was one of the few kids living on the streets who had managed to figure out how to read at a reasonable level. This made her a prime candidate for traveling companion. Also he was sure he would miss annoying her if he left without her.

And he would miss the lovely nicknames she came up with.

Like shithead and fucktard.

Okay maybe not so much the nicknames.

"Oy, stop staring off into space like an even bigger dumbass than you already are." Tayuya's voice cut into his inner thought processes.

Naruto shook himself in response to this sudden accusation of stupidity. It was not a personal slight against his intelligence though, she just called anyone who she found obnoxious in any way at all a dumbass. Which as it turned out was effectively everyone.

"I was just thinkin'" Naruto muttered in his own defense nonetheless. Just because she treated everyone like that didn't mean he was just going to stand there and let her treat him like that.

"First time for everything." The redhead muttered under her breath. "What is it, I don't have time for a job right now I'm fucking busy." Tayuya explained/complained and gestured to what she was doing. To be honest Naruto actually had no idea what she was doing, she just had a dozen or so planks of wood gathered for some reason.

"I was jus' wonderin' how much you like bein' here." Naruto opened with trying to figure out the best words to sell this.

"I'm not giving you my house." Tayuya glared at him.

"I didn' mean here here. I meant _here_." Naruto emphasized in perhaps not the best of terms.

This was made clear when Tayuya just blinked at him. "The fuck?"

Yeah, this was going to take awhile to explain.

* * *

 _Naruto POV, Several Hours Later, Somewhere In Abandoned Area of Town…_

As it turned out he was right. It took a very long time to explain things to her and then attempt to convince her that following him off the a ninja village was actually a good idea. That part was a tiny bit harder to sell up until he pointed out that you never knew what kind of of creepy snake obsessed pedophiles might kidnap you in the night, force you to fight to the death in gladiator like matches and then have you serve as one of his elite bodyguards until your eventual death.

He had no idea where he had come up with that argument but it had apparently done the trick as Tayuya had noticeably paled and then started swearing about his "fucked up head" and how unlikely it was to happen.

Despite what she said about it though, Naruto felt that had been the argument that had won her over to his way of thinking.

So now he had one traveling companion who could read maps. Honestly that was all he really needed but another thought had occurred to him and while he felt somewhat reluctant about this second partner he was presumably a useful choice that he didn't completely hate.

He was just…

Annoying.

While Tayuya found Naruto, and to a lesser degree everyone else, annoying, Naruto had his own annoyance who would occasionally barge into his life.

Yoku.

The boy was about his own age, presumably. He had asked him once and the other kid had looked thoughtful for a moment before shrugging and saying he didn't know. This was not entirely uncommon in the lifestyle that they lived but it still must have sucked to not even know how old you were. Of course Naruto felt less sympathetic when Yoku had decided that Naruto's age was now his own.

Apart from the age thing the other street urchin was not all that much to look at. He had rather bland black hair in a short pony-tail which topped of a rather long and round face adorned with eyes that constantly squinted. Even more so than Naruto himself would squint at people and that's saying something.

The other boy was not so much as a thief as a con artist. He could talk his way around a butcher who would like nothing more than to chop him to pieces. The first time Naruto had met him he had managed to convince him to turn over the basket of fruit he had just spent the last hour figuring out how to steal.

After that Yoku would just occasionally show up and do stuff. More often than not when he did appear he would try and get food out of him. Which normally ended up being _all_ of his food, because that kid could eat like an obese man addicted to McAkimichi's. This in itself was shocking because the kid was skinny as heck, not to say he was malnourished or anything he was just really lithe.

Ironically it was because of Yoku's food gathering techniques that he was considering bringing the other boy with them. If they ran out of food on the road it would be very helpful to have someone who was master at gathering large quantities of the stuff even if it was normally for his own benefit.

Naruto did not get the chance to make up his mind on the other boy however. This was largely due to the fact that he got found first. As was par for the course unfortunately.

"So, I heard you were thinking about jumping town." Yoku's voice suddenly said from the fire escape of a nearby building almost causing Naruto to jump out of his skin. Fortunately months of acclimatizing to the con artist had its benefits. Lack of reaction to his sudden and unexpected appearances beings one of them.

"I don' even wanna know how you found that out." Naruto muttered shaking his head.

"I'm a special little snowflake." Yoku jumped down and slung and arm around Naruto's shoulder before he could resist.

Naruto blinked as he considered the wording the other boy used. "Wha's that mean?" He asked with confusing.

"Tell you later." Yoku shrugged. "What I want to know is how my favorite source of dinner is planning on leaving town without me!" He put up a good show of looking upset about that fact, though with how much he loved his food he very well could have been. "However will I survive without you." He started sobbing into Naruto's shoulder making him feel incredibly uncomfortable. He had to give Yoku credit though, his acting skills were simply phenomenal. If he didn't know better he'd say the boy was truly traumatized at the idea of him leaving.

Though once again considering the food thing, he very well could have been.

Naruto could already tell he was going to regret asking him to come along.

Instead of forgetting the whole thing thought he sighed in submission, "I wasn' gonna leave you." _As much as I may want to_. He silently added.

"Great!" Yoku perked up as if he hadn't just been sobbing into Naruto's baby blue t-shirt leaving a large wet spot behind. "When do we leave?"

"Tomorrow morning before dawn." Naruto told him still feeling somewhat reluctant. "Don' be late. And bring your _own_ food!" He added before Yoku could cut him off.

"Oh your kindness is without end gentle whisker boy." Yoku said extremely theatrically. "As a token of my gratitude I will bring enough to feed myself for three hours!"

Well, Naruto had to concede. That was better than not bringing any food at all. He decided to pop the question though.

"Why do you wanna leave so much?" It wasn't that Pallet was a bad town or anything, apart from the homeless orphans that would rob you blind.

"Hey I saw those ninja you ran into." Yoku started whispering and his eyes opened slightly revealing dark eyes that darted around constantly in a paranoid manner. "If you can't beat them, and I know I can't, join them."

"Or rob them blind." Naruto recited, completing the first line of code that just about every thief in town had at one point followed before the profession went on the decline.

"Unless they're a ninja." Yoku finished with the second line of code that directly related to the above rule.

Naruto had to concede the point there. Trying to rob or even con a ninja was just asking for a knife to be lodged somewhere vital to bodily function.

"Well then." Yoku stood up straight and brushed off Naruto's shoulders in a friendly manner. "See ya tomorrow. Remember don't be late!" He called as he trotted off.

"Hey!" Naruto protested "Tha's-"

But by then he was already gone.

Naruto grumbled under his breath about ungrateful con artists and hiked up his backpack over his shoulder. It was weighed down a bit with the cans and boxes of food he had bought. He then continued on his way towards his stash to pack up.

As he thought about it he had to admit he was kind of glad that Tayuya and Yoku were going to be coming with him. He would probably get lonely without anyone around to talk to and annoy. Or in _someone's_ case get annoyed by. He glanced back at the setting sun behind him as he turned into the where alleyway the entrance to his base was located.

After a moment he turned away and continued on his way.

Tomorrow was a new day.

* * *

 **And end.**

 **Yes Tayuya. Yay!**

 **Also OC. Less yay.**

 **OC's are kind of a requirement for this fic and honestly a lot of large scale Naruto stories because as big as Kishimoto's world is there are a lot of areas where details are notably lacking.**

 **Like civilian villages, towns and cities.**

 **Yoku is actually based off another anime character who while not beloved is at least well liked so hopefully it won't piss off too many troublemakers.**

 **If you want to know who and haven't figured it out via his actions yet, the clue is in the name.**

 **Also if some of the above seems way to intelligent for a five year old, that's because it's not word for word what's going through his head. If it were there would likely be a lot more pictures and a smaller vocabulary.**

 **So let's do reviews!**

 **Naruita14: I'm glad you like it!**

 **Magicvibes: Glad you're excited about it!**

 **KilluaGodspeed: I may have slightly missed my point there and your reaction to that is fair. I was trying to say I wasn't going to be making godlike, super cool, and "get away with whatever he wants to because he can", Naruto. There are of course going to be several differences to his personality but I still want him to have traits that are recognizable as, well, **_**Naruto**_ **. Sorry about my lack of proper communication.**

 **Jh831: That is hilarious and now I want to make an omake about it. I might do that sometime. Also I get the update thing but I don't want to keep people waiting for months with no word of a chapter like I did with Gone Ghost.**

 **So that's all for this chapter and before anyone starts…**

 **DO NOT** _ **ASK FOR PAIRINGS.**_

 **Seriously I'm not going to shove two people together because one reviewer starts the ship war. I hate those, I have seen good stories** _ **ruined**_ **because of those.** _ **If and when**_ **I decide to do a ship it will be my decision.** _ **And mine alone.**_

 **Anyway, I hope you enjoyed! See you next week with either Gone Ghost or Village Idiots!**

 **Ciao!**

 **~FriTik**

 **R &R**


	4. Road to Yu

**What's this? A chapter for a story that is not Sealed Away beginning with the words "What's this?"**

 **How peculiar!**

 **Now normally for my stories I start off a new chapter ranting about something or other but I honestly can't think of anything off the top of my head.**

 **So yeah… Instead, please wait for approximately thirty seconds before proceeding to read the chapter. While you wait please feel free to use this time to rethink your life choices.**

…

…

…

 **Assuming you actually waited those thirty seconds, proceed to the chapter with merry wishes on your being! If you did not do so, shame upon you and your bloodline, you rude and uncouth heathen.**

 **Well then, let's get to the chapter now shall we?**

* * *

 _Naruto POV, Four Days After Leaving Pallet…_

One day Naruto would look back upon his journey to Yu and laugh at the good old days and silently muse about his odd yet not entirely horrible childhood.

But today, today was not that day.

No this day, the present day, there was nothing to laugh about. Especially considering the unfortunate fact that Naruto and his companions were currently being chased by a bear, perhaps to be eaten, but whether orphan was on the menu or not they were going to get mauled to death if they were caught.

"THIS IS YOUR FAULT!" Naruto screamed as he held up his arms to block his face from the series of branches assaulting his person in rapid fashion.

."HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT THERE WERE GOING TO BE BEARS?" Tayuya shouted back at him, her slightly older age and size giving her the physical advantage over her smaller companion in this chase.

"Technically it's only one bear." Yoku commented with his voice slightly raised to be heard over the sounds that commonly coexisted with fleeing in fear for one's life. But apart from it being of a slightly higher octave the boy sounded quite calm.

"ROAR!" The groups pursuer added into the conversation.

"HOW ARE YOU STAYING SO CALM ABOUT THIS?!" Naruto shouted at him feeling somewhat enraged, this was not a situation that the young con artist could just talk his way out of. To be completely honest Naruto was actually feeling quite astonished that they had not been caught by the seemingly enraged animal.

"Because I figured out why she's chasing us. And she should stop in three… two…" Yoku started counting down.

Sure enough the bear was slowing down and the children were pulling ahead of it. Before long the bear was out of sight. That did not mean they stopped running of course. Oh no, they kept on running until they reached a clearing in the forest. At that point they all promptly collapsed taking heaving breaths of air and allowing their small bodies to cool off.

"H- how?" Tayuya finally managed to ask Yoku.

"Think about it, bears aren't normally violent towards humans. True we're small enough I guess but that was still way too violent and aggressive for a meal. So I put two and two together." Yoku explained and realization dawned on Naruto.

"Mama bear…" He muttered thinking of a story he heard the orphan matron back in Konoha tell. He was not supposed to have been listening in because he was a "bad influence on the other children" but he had sneaked up to the door and listened in anyway. Although come to think of it considering he spent most of his time finding ways to rob people he very well could have been a bad influence.

"Exactly she stopped chasing us because she did not want to leave her cubs alone for too long." Yoku shrugged, "I'm not sure why but most mothers feel very protective towards their offspring."

"I don't get it." Tayuya decided after a moment of consideration. "Why the fuck would she care?"

"Dunno." Naruto added in. "Most moms seem to like their kids a lot."

"My mom seemed to like me." Yoku commented causing the other two to look at him in surprise. "But then she got rid of me. Although she was crying at the time, so maybe she just didn't like me enough to keep me?" He looked quite thoughtful.

Mothers, in fact parents of any kind, were of a somewhat foreign subject to Naruto. He had in the past seen parents nurturing their children but he had never been on the receiving end of such emotions. In Pallet he had sometimes received concern and even pity but never anything that quite resembled how he assumed parents were supposed to treat their children.

Having never experienced it himself Naruto was essentially a stranger on the other side of the glass looking in. He hd relied on himself for just about all of his life that he could remember. So what made a mother or any kind of parent or loved one. Was it the fact they were related? Though Naruto was not quite sure how being related to someone worked. Was there a lottery at birth to decide who someone was related to? No one had ever bothered to explain it to him, or why he was apparently left out of it.

"Pfft. This is fucking stupid. Who needs shitty parents anyway?" Tayuya muttered but something about her tone gave Naruto pause. He decided not to press the issue though. Traveling with an annoyed and tired Tayuya was one thing. Traveling with an annoyed, tired _and_ pissed off Tayuya was another matter entirely.

After another few minutes of rest the trio felt rested enough to continue on their way. There was, however, one tiny little problem…

"WHA' DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T KNOW WHERE WE ARE!" Naruto screamed at Tayuya who was looking quite angry herself. So much for not getting her pissed off.

"Exactly what I said shithead!" She snapped back at him. "I wasn't paying attention when we were running from the bear. If we were going in a straight line the entire damn time then _maybe_ we might be able to get back onto the fucking road." Tayuya explained inspecting the map.

"Why did we even come this way?" Naruto complained looking over her shoulder. To him the map was nothing more than a bunch of lines with occasionally labeled dots he suspected were villages or towns.

"Because it looked like a fucking shortcut." Tayuya shot at him point at a spot on the map. "We were here and the road goes this way." She traced her finger along the line to an intersection further down. "Once we got here we would've needed to all the fucking way around to get here." She pointed at a spot on the road somewhat close to where she had started. "So I thought, "hey we and just cut across this little bit of cruddy forest here and be at that point in half the time!" I'm so fucking sorry for trying to speed things up." She elbowed Naruto in the gut for good measure, knocking the wind out of him and sending him back to the ground.

"Ow…" He groaned as he rubbed his sore stomach. Why did she have to be so much bigger than him?

"Don't fucking complain next time and let me do my job you damn fuckface." She sneered at him and then looked back at the map seeing if there were any landmarks in the section of woods they were in. "Hey other shithead, you wanna complain too? Or are you going to be patient until I figure out where we're going."

When Yoku failed to respond both Naruto and Tayuya turned their mutual attention towards him.

Yoku was curled up in fetal position moaning. The other two young criminals glanced at each other before Naruto push himself up went to see what was the matter.

"Uh, Yoku." He poked at the annoying con artist. Had he accidently hurt himself during the chase? But if he had why hadn't he said anything before when they were resting?

"Oohhh." He moaned loudly clutching his torso in apparent agony. "So hungry..."

The clearing fell silent for the briefest of moments.

"NOW IS NOT THE FUCKING TIME!"

* * *

 _Several Hours Later…_

It had taken them about twenty minutes to finally convince Yoku to move without digging into the few rations they still had left. All it had taken was promising that the next chance they got they would do everything they could to get more food. Specifically food for Yoku, seriously what was his deal with food?

Nonetheless they were once again underway, albeit they were traveling through the woods desperately hoping that they would eventually find the road again. Unfortunately it was beginning to get dark and they still had yet to find heads nor tails of the road.

"Dammit I do not want to be out here during the night." Tayuya swore glaring at the darkening sky.

"How bad could it be?" Naruto asked curiously. He had never been completely cut off from civilization during the night before. Even during their journey thus far they had set up camp at the side of the road and just waited for day.

"Okay think of the darkest place you've ever been." Tayuya told him. Naruto thought about it and had the faded memory of being locked in the closet at the orphanage one night. When he nodded his confirmation, Tayuya continued. "Okay now imagine that, only with a bunch of animals that may or may not want to eat you and no idea where the heck you are and which way you're going."

Naruto winced at the thought and had to agree, that was something he desperately wanted to avoid.

"Maybe we should start a fire?" He suggested feeling somewhat worried.

"That could burn down the entire forest." Yoku pointed out effectively killing the idea before it could take root and cause bad decision making. His stomach then growled again giving him pause. "Still so hungry…" He hung his head.

"Oh be a man and push through when we find the fucking road we can eat some of our food." Tayuya growled at him. Any further discussion down that line of thought was quickly cut off when another stomach rumbling was heard. Not from Yoku this time though and not from Naruto either for that matter.

Both boys gave Tayuya deadpan stares and she started sweating a bit. "The.. um… bear must have come back." She muttered and glanced away.

"I'm pretty sure it didn't." Naruto commented wondering why she would think such a thing. Seriously that had not even sounded like the noise the bear had made.

"Oh shut the fuck up." Tayuya commanded him angrily.

They walked in silence for another ten to fifteen minutes and the sky continued to darken and there was still no sign of the trees thinning any time soon.

"We need to stop for the night." Naruto declared realizing that there was no chance of finding the road before the sun finished setting leaving them in the inky darkness of night.

"Like hell!" Tayuya snarled glaring at the map and seemingly only barely refraining from ripping it apart in frustration.

"He's right." Yoku commented. "We need to find somewhere to stay for the night. Being in the woods at night is one thing, being _out in the open_ at night in the woods is another." He explained.

"Fucking damnit." Tayuya swore realizing she was outvoted by her companions. The group stopped and relaxed a bit before working out a plan.

"We'll look around this area for some cover." Yoku explained. "Always make sure to stay within sight of one another. When you find something that looks promising holler and we'll take a look. After that we can sort our stuff out and our plan for tomorrow. And then we can finally eat!" He cheered tears of joy streaming down his cheeks and a joyous smile on his face.

Both Naruto and Tayuya sweatdropped at his odd obsession.

They then split up and began pushing through the brush trying to find either a small overhang to give them some shelter or a hole in the ground to squat in for the night. As fortune and luck would have it, Naruto was the one who discovered their accommodations for the night. Via his normal weird form of luck.

He had just pushed through another bush and put his foot down expecting to find solid ground but instead found nothing but air.

"AHH!" He cried out as the ground seemingly swallowed him up and he tumbled downwards. He landed face first in the dirt and waited for his heart to stop attempting to hammer its way out of his chest.

"Hey good job whiskers!" He heard Yoku cheer as he grunted into the dirt at the bottom of the hole. After making sure they could all fit inside, although it was a bit of a tight fit, they pulled out the rations they had which were beginning to run low after several days on the road.

"Finally!" Yoku praised and began digging into his stale rice cake, the last one they had if Naruto recalled correctly. As Naruto ate his own food he wondered where this hole had come from. There was a bit of a smell to it but it was faint as though it had not been used in awhile.

"Wonder what made this." He commented idly as he chewed, his voice coming out a tad more muffled than he meant it to due to the food in his mouth.

"Probably an animal." Yoku predicted through his bites.

"I meant what kind of animal." Naruto elaborated feeling annoyed.

"Don't fucking know. Don't give a shit." Tayuya said gulping her last bite and maneuvering her bag so she could use it as a pillow. She pulled out the old ratty jacket that she had been using as a blanket and tossed it over herself. "If anything comes to eat us in the night let it eat you first so it'll be too full to eat me."

Naruto glared but said nothing as he prepared for bed himself. Well not so much bed, as just sleep seeing as he had never actually slept in a real bed and he certainly wasn't starting now in this hole in the middle of a forest who knows where.

So he closed his eyes and allowed darkness to take him.

* * *

 _The Next Morning…_

Naruto woke feeling quite stiff and uncomfortable. This was in no doubt do to the fact that he was sleeping in a hole in the ground. A good way to survive the night or not, there was nothing resembling pleasant about it.

He blinked his eyes trying to remove the blurriness. The roots and dirt making up the roof of the hole faded in and out of focus. Sunlight coming in shafts from the small entrance lit up the makeshift dwelling painting it a lovely shade of brown. He smacked his cheeks trying to get the morning taste out of his mouth. It was at this time he noticed a slight pressure on his chest.

Moving slowly, Naruto lifted his head to see what was causing the pressure. At first he thought that maybe some dirt had fallen on him during the night and that was causing the problem. A visual study however quickly blew that assumption out of the water and into orbit. It also revealed why what was sitting on his chest felt so warm.

Curled up on his chest was a small animal.

Naruto actually was not quite sure what type of animal it was. It was small and orangish-red colored and quite furry. It had a large pair of ears on what he assumed was its head based on the snout and whiskers.

Now, his first instinct would likely be to panic and throw the small creature off of himself and then bolt but honestly it did not seem to be doing anyone any harm. This was actually the closest he had ever come to an animal that was not actively trying to make him dinner. Well, not including rats or mice anyway but they just scampered around at the edge of his sight and occasionally tried to eat his food.

"Psst! Whiskers!" Naruto heard Yoku trying to get his attention. He turned his head slowly away from the small creature on his chest and saw that both Tayuya and Yoku were already up.

"What?" He hissed back at them trying not to wake up the little animal.

"Don't panic, but there is a fox on your chest." Yoku pointed at the furry thing using him as a bed. Oh so that's what the animal was. He had heard about the Kyuubi no Youko back in Konoha, usually talked about in hushed voices. Apparently the fourth hokage had died fighting it or something.

"I noticed!" He shot back. Tayuya looked like she was about to burst out laughing but was still eyeing the fox like it might jump up and attack them.

Unfortunately he had spoken a bit louder than he had meant to and the fox's ear twitched and yellow eyes blinked open. It glanced around and then let off a silent yawn and sat up from its curled sleeping position. At this point Naruto had frozen and was staying completely motionless, worried about what the animal's reaction would be if he so much as moved a muscle.

The little fox tilted its head and stared at Naruto in an almost curious manner. Naruto stared right back at the creature.

"Yip!" It barked at him in a somewhat excited way.

"AHHH!" Naruto started screaming.

"AHHHH!" Tayuya and Yoku joined in completing the chorus.

"Yip! Yip!" The fox continued barking excited to be part of the cavalcade of sound.

* * *

 _Later That Day…_

"Naruto your fucking fox is still following us." Tayuya complained as they continued on their journey through the forest.

It was true, the little fox was still padding along after them like a lost puppy. Although considering the fact that it was most likely a very young fox with no parent in sight it very well might have been.

"It's not my fox!" Naruto complained glancing back at the animal.

"I think he begs to differ." Yoku pointed out, a very good point considering it was still following them.

"How do you know it's a boy?" Naruto asked him skeptically.

"Well it's either a boy or a girl and I don't think he would appreciate being called it, so since you're a boy and it likes you I figured it's a he." Yoku explained his reasoning. Very similar reasoning to how he decided he was five years old come to think of it.

"Pfft," Tayuya blew a strand of pair out of her face. "What's the fuck is the difference between boys and girls anyway? Maybe he's a she!"

"Well girls do have long hair and this fox's fur isn't that long so I guess it is a boy." Naruto reasoned after thinking about it.

"Well, that does make sense." Yoku agreed.

"Hey! Girl's have other things that make us different you damn idiots!" Tayuya shot at them.

"Like what?" naruto asked honestly curious.

"Like… like… I don't know... but don't older girls have… things on their chest?" Tayuya pointed out making a gesture for the bouncy things that could potentially sit there.

"Oh yeah!" Naruto remembered now, he'd never really put much thought into it before now. He then inspected Tayuya's chest with great scrutiny. "You don't have things Tayuya! Does that mean you're a boy?"

"But she has long hair though." Yoku pointed out putting his hand to his chin thoughtfully. "Maybe our violent redhead is a hybrid?" He questioned. Tayuya had stopped walking and was now glaring at her companions.

"What would that even be? He, she, it or something else?" Naruto asked unaware of the potential danger.

"Shkle?" Yoku suggested after putting some thought into it.

"How would that work? It sounds like a reference." Naruto pointed out as Tayuya clenched her fists.

"I'M RIGHT FUCKING HERE YOU MOTHERFUCKING SHITHEADS" She practically shrieked at them and then attempted to proceed to pound their heads into their torsos.

"I'M SORRY!" Naruto yelled as he ran from his female traveling companion. Both Yoku and the baby fox running alongside him.

"I was just trying to help!" Yoku protested as he kept up.

"Yip!" The fox kit added in his opinion.

"I DON'T GIVE A DAMN!" The chase continued and the group didn't notice the trees beginning to thin out until Naruto tripped on a rock. He yelped in pain as his right arm landed on something sharp. Grasping his arm and feeling a warm liquid on it he figured he must have been bleeding but he had other concerns right now. Primarily the potentially deadly redhead standing over him cracking her knuckles in a manner that left no debate as to her intentions.

"WAIT!" Yoku shouted before she could begin taking her anger out on the blonde boy. "Look where we are!"

Naruto took a look around himself figuring he might as well take in the sights before the end. But his eyes widened and he gasped when he realized where they were. Gravel made up a continuous wide path that stretched into the distance.

"THE ROAD!" Tayuya actually cheered. Somewhat out of character but considering they'd been wandering around the woods for the past day and a half she could hardly be blamed.

"Does that mean you won't kill me?" Naruto asked perhaps hoping a bit too much but you can't blame him for trying.

Tayuya glared at him, anger returning to her eyes. "Maybe later. For now, I don't want to carry your stuff or that dumbass fox following me around instead of you."

He sighed in relief, crisis averted! He winced as he pushed himself up and pain shot through his right arm. He then inspected it and saw that he had a series of unorderly small cuts and scrapes from where he had landed on the gravel.

"That doesn't look too good." Yoku commented looking concerned.

"It's just a scrape I'll be fine, 'ttebayo!" Naruto said putting on a fake smile and ignoring the discomfort it caused him. They just found the road and it wasn't like they could go and get someone to take a look at it. Heck they didn't even have any bandages. In hindsight it probably would have been a good idea to bring some with them.

"Are you sure?" Yoku pressed him on the subject.

"It's not like we can do anything about it. If the shithead says he's fine then he's fine." Tayuya snapped while unrolling the map. "Damnit I have no idea where we are. We'll have to continue and hope we find a sign that relates to this shit map." She turned away muttering under her breath.

Naruto shot Yoku a glance mouthing "shit map?" but didn't say anything out loud. They had only just survived her last violence oriented rage, no need to bring on another one so quickly.

So with the road now somewhat clear they set off once again with the little fox still trotting along behind.

* * *

 _A couple of days later…_

As it turned out they were actually quite lucky as to where they ended up. They were actually on the portion of the road Tayuya had been trying to get them to with her shortcut, albeit slightly further along than intended but that could be seen as a good thing.

What was not a good thing was the fact that while most of the cuts on Naruto's arm had healed up within a day of receiving them a particularly large one was still there and had turned a rather unhealthy color. Not to mention it hurt more than anything Naruto had felt before. But considering they still had no way of finding out what was wrong with it they had no choice but to continue.

Naruto had actually been feeling slightly less energetic than he was used to. They had to stop for break more often and it was harder for him to get up. He also felt warmer and the skin around the cut was red and slightly swollen.

All in all not a very good condition.

It was in this state that they finally made it to Yugakure. It actually was not very well hidden, certainly a bit out of the way of course. It was near or perhaps part of a place called the Valley of Hell. it was hard to tell from the map but it was hardly a promising name.

When they finally reached the gates Naruto felt really tired. Way more than he should have considering they had just taken a break about ten minutes earlier. His arm hurt a lot.

Tayuya started talking to the guards but only ended up antagonizing them. Yoku tried to do damage control but Naruto was having trouble paying attention to the conversation. Why was he so tired? The fox kit was just padding in circles around him making a strange noise.

One of the guards not in the conversation noticed him. "Hey kid are you alright?" He asked showing apparent concern. Heh, so this village wasn't like Konoha, or maybe they just didn't know anything was wrong with him yet. It was kind of funny…

He barely noticed as the guard pressed the back of his hand to his forehead, he was busy trying to keep his eyes open. "...'s fine…" He mumbled. He knew it wasn't but what if they took him in and then decided they didn't like him? They could make him feel worse.

"Hey this kid's burning up!" The guard shouted at his companions who were beginning to calm down as Yoku attempted to physically block of Tayuya from the conversation despite her vigorous swearing.

"...fine.." Naruto muttered as he rapidly blinked trying to clear his vision why was standing so hard right now? Maybe he should just sit down for a minute…

He leaned against the side of the gate and started leaning down. He should stay awake just a bit longer. They had spent so long to get here, he could stay awake a few more minutes.

The other guards must have noticed something wrong and another had come over while the other was quizzing Yoku who had his hands up in a placating gesture. Maybe he could rest just a bit...

His vision darkened.

Then nothing.

* * *

 **Bit of a cliffhanger there huh?**

 **It's not like I'm going to kill Naruto off this early though and I'm sure some of you figured out what was going on. If you didn't then it'll be explained next chapter.**

 **This chapter was clearly the journey to Yu, I thought a baby fox imprinting on Naruto would be an amusing subplot so I'm going to keep him for now.**

 **But this chapter had another point that I hope was clear. I was trying to drive home the fact that despite their situations and actions the main cast are still very much children and have a childlike perception of the world in a lot of places. Differently than other kids because they never had a parent to keep them away from the bad things or to explain other things.**

 **I think this story might be a bit more about character development than my other stories because I'm starting young for these guys. They're going to change and grow as people as I keep writing and I wanted to make that clear.**

 **Anyway, on a more positive note, reviews!**

 **Ramze: Glad you think it's interesting.**

 **Scarease: Thanks for the suggestion but I'm going to try to keep to my own characters in this story. Maybe in a future one? But I might take you up on the names in japanese if I run into trouble in the future.**

 **Naruita14: I'm happy you thought it was good.**

 **Rinnigan: To be fair most characters from that show are awesome. I just picked him because I figured he would fit in the best with this story.**

 **Tdfztdfz: The council is not actually there for bashing. Although that seems to be the only reason they exist. Honestly they're not even canon. I just included them to give a point of view from the people that don't have super powers in this world. They're made out as idiots and bigots in most stories but in reality they're just normal people who don't understand the insane things happening in the world around them. And thanks for the OC pep talk.**

 **xiamaome101 Gmail . com: I am pleased that you find it interesting.**

 **MyNameIsLaura: I'm happy to bring enjoyment to my readers!**

 **That's all for this time. Next update is still up for grabs, I have a few first pages ready and not sure which I'm going to put my focus into. So until next we meet! Just remember: there's no gear!**

 **Bye!**

 **~FriTik**

 **R &R**


	5. Plans and Change

**Surprise!**

 **I bet none of you saw this coming!**

 **Updating this story two weeks in a row? How unexpected of me!**

 **Yeah I just felt the urge to write this and might focus on it for a bit. I'm sure I'll switch to something else sooner or later though.**

 **Anyway, for those that didn't figure out what happened last time, Naruto's cut got infected and, being a young child that is really quite dangerous. Deadly even…**

 **But he's not dead! You want to see me kill off a main character in the first few chapters go read Gone Ghost or Son Siblings, I need him alive for this one. Obviously.**

 **Also going to avoid Naruto using seals, much anyway. I'll probably have him use storage seals, but that's about it. Why? Because I have him messing around with them in two other stories and I don't like being repetitive. So yeah, different focus for his abilities.**

 **This chapter has a bit of Naruto but the main focus is going to be on how Yu's government and shinobi force work as well as checking in on Konoha.**

 **Chapter time!**

* * *

 _Naruto POV, Unknown…_

Naruto woke up in a sewer.

This was actually surprisingly normal to be honest, considering he had in fact _lived_ in a sewer for several months.

The problem with the situation was that he was almost certain that he had not fallen asleep in a sewer. Actually the details on just how he had fallen asleep were quite blurry come to think of it. What had been going on at the time exactly?

His memory of the situation was foggy at best, he remembered being tired and being in quite a lot of pain at the time. Come to think of it, why was not he still in pain? Hadn't there been a very bad cut on his arm or something?

Naruto inspected the supposedly offending arm. It appeared as though the injury was gone, not even a scar remained in fact. No phantom pains either, it was as though he had never been injured at all.

Choosing to shrug off his apparently non-existent injury, Naruto pushed himself to his feet and properly inspected the sewer he was in. It certainly was not any sewer he recognized although considering he had only ever been in one sewer and that was the one he lived in it was not saying much.

Although come to think of it that should have been the only sewer he should ever find himself in and that only being if the last week or so of travel had been a dream.

Oh yeah now he remembered! Naruto felt like facepalming wondering how he could possibly forget. He, Tayuya, Yoku and the fox kit that kept following him around, had just arrived at Yugakure, The village hidden in the Hot springs, a name which was kind of misleading considering the village had not exactly been very well "hidden."

But, knowing that, he still had no proper explanation for why he had just awaken in a sewer of all places.

This sewer was actually quite different from his former place of residence. For one thing it didn't smell like shit. But that was a good thing come to think of it. Also unlike the disused sewer he was used to this one had a thin layer of water running through it. The water was not very deep however, in fact it did not even come up past the soles of his sandals so that was a plus at least. Essentially it was just one giant puddle.

And speaking of giant that actually fit the sewer quite well because it was _massive_. Many times his height certainly and made of solid brick, no cracks of any shape or form and the bricks were stacked in a rather uniform manner.

This was all very well and good but there was something that felt… unsettling about this sewer. Naruto was not sure how else to describe such a feeling. It was not all around him but rather further down the pipeline. It just felt so very wrong, and that was the best he could put it in terms of words. Unfortunately he seemed to be lacking in other options and the unsettling feeling was the only clue he had, so bracing himself he pushed forward into the dark sewer.

As he continued on his way Naruto noticed a few things about this progressively stranger sewer. For starters each section appeared to be the exact same as the last, not even a brick out of place. Also it never got darker, he had the same dim lighting throughout his entire journey never once giving way to darkness. The final thing he noticed was perhaps the most concerning and that was the water seemed to be flowing from the direction he was moving in. The fact that it seemed to get murkier as he continued was the only evidence that he was actually getting anywhere.

Soon enough, although it was hard to tell how long exactly, Naruto found what he believed to be the source of the feeling of "wrongness" he had felt. The thing in front of him seemed to resonate with the sensation that cascaded down the sewer. He couldn't help but stare at it.

It…

It was-it was...

It was a giant brick wall.

To be completely honest, that was not at all what he had been expecting. Of course he had not been sure of what exactly he had been expecting but still a giant brick wall was not nearly as impressive as he thought whatever it was would be.

Well now he had the answer of what, but the new question was why? Seriously why the heck was there a brick wall in this sewer that gave off a horribly unsettling feeling. The water seemed to be flowing from a thin crack at the bottom but that was about it.

Naruto felt like stomping his foot in frustration at this point. It wouldn't solve anything but it would make him feel better to let some aggression out, even if it would be horribly ineffective at getting anything at all done.

So instead he did the next best thing. Throw a tantrum and hope it gets you what you want. It occasionally worked on vendors who likely knew it would be bad for business to have a screaming kid standing outside of their stall.

"STUPID WALL!" He cried forcing out crocodile tears for the added effect. He was not sure what he hoped to accomplish but it was better than doing nothing. "WHY ARE YOU SO MESSED UP!" Naruto did not expect anything to actually happen so when there was no response other than his voice echoing back to him he dried to fake tears and prepared to go pout by side of the sewer.

Then the wall cracked.

Naruto stumbled back in surprise and winced as he landed in the water. Thankfully it wasn't deep enough to completely soak him but now his shorts were wet. Sadly enough that was not the major concern here, he would have much prefered that option.

No instead of being forced to worry himself over the discomfort of wet pants he instead had to deal with the wall in front of him continuing to crack and for the feeling of wrongness to get stronger.

Cracks began to stretch across the wall, creating a weblike appearance. The formerly unsettling feeling no longer felt as such, now it felt harsh, cruel and painful. It made Naruto want to curl up in a ball and cry for real. The feeling was horrible and powerful all at once.

And it was coming from the wall that was beginning to break apart.

Naruto watched in stunned silent horror as strange red cloudlike shapes began to leak from the cracks. They too emanated that horrible feeling that currently held Naruto petrified and unable to bring himself to move to get away from it.

The clouds began to grow in size and rush towards him. Naruto finally managed to break free of his paralysis just in time to scream-

He shot up in bed screaming barely noticing the white room he was in. Medical devices sat in various states of use around him as the heart monitor began to speed up and the nearby staff quickly ran to find out what was wrong this the young patient.

* * *

 _General POV, Yu Shinobi Headquarters…_

Yu was a very different village than Konoha. For multiple reasons, one of the major ones being that it was far smaller than what was widely accepted as the most powerful Hidden Village. This fact alone caused no end of problems for the minor village.

The Shinobi forces were few in this village, many of chunin were simply genin in all but name and promoted to give the village an image of some form of strength to ward off more powerful forces from attempting to assault it as though it were a basic civilian village.

The actual numbers of the Yu's shinobi forces were less than impressive. The village hosted a total of ten Jounin, twenty three special Jounin, one hundred eleven chunin and thirty nine genin. A miniscule amount compared to the numbers of the major villages.

The village had not begun as a ninja village, in fact the "Yu" had existed as a small settlement since the warring clans era. Fortunately only one clan had called the area home during that time so there had been little fighting between shinobi. There were bandits of course so ninja of the clan were often hired during that time to defend the village and caravans importing and exporting goods.

This clan was the Kuma Clan and while they technically did not have a bloodline they were well reputed for being dangerous and powerful foes in combat. They hit hard and were able to take a beating in return. They had never been the fastest or the stealthiest so instead they prefered the "hidden in plain sight" branch of shinobi tactics. After all someone who makes himself out to be a drunken brawler would hardly be expected to be a well trained killing machine.

When the hidden villages had began forming the Kuma clan and the settlement had come together in order to keep up with the rapidly changing times. It was a symbiotic relationship and for many years worked well. People from non shinobi backgrounds began training in the arts and between the Kuma clan and the new blood the village made a name for itself in the early days of the post-warring clans era.

Nothing lasts forever however and after a particularly bloody battle early in the third shinobi world war that had wiped out roughly half of Yu's ninja forces the village had never quite been able to properly recover. The Kuma clan was a shadow of what it once was, not that it truly mattered at this point considering most of the village were at least descendants of the clan. There was only one jounin who still held the clan's name at this point and that was Kuma Hiromasa and he was the one responsible for the current topic of discussion with the current head jounin of the village, Nouko Masao.

Yu had never had a kage, in fact most minor villages did not have a kage leading them. Such a position seemed to be reserved for only the boldest of minors and the "big five" themselves. Despite their apparent boldness however these minor kages were not treated as anything special by the wider world. Well, apart from Hanzo but you messed with that motherfucker if you had a deathwish.

Masao was technically not the strongest jounin in the village, that right fell to either Hidan or Hiromasa. Masao was just the best at dealing with bureaucracy and the politics that centered around the council that ran the village on which the head jounin and Kuma clan head both held seats. Hiromasa himself was not the clan's head that right fell to a cousin of his, he was simply the most powerful member at this time and as such was held in high respect by most of the village.

It is for this reason that the fact he had decided to sponsor anyone for joining the villages, rather small, acadamy was such an important fact.

"So the brat finally woke up then?" Hiromasa commented, not one to mine words.

"Yes, though I do admit to being quite curious why you would sponsor anyone. Nevermind a random street urchin." Masao made his disdain for such rabble somewhat clear, while he was not against new blood for the village he felt Hiromasa could have found a better source.

"He managed to sneak up on the team I brought with me, while not especially impressive considering their skill level… well you have the medical report on the kid there take a look at the chakra reserves." Hiromasa directed, the man was a sensor type so it must have been of some importance.

Masao inspected the document humming thoughtfully but froze when he saw the written report. There was no way a _child_ , a random street rat from some no name village could hold such massive reserves.

"Shocking right?" Hiromasa have a slight chuckle, "I almost did not believe it myself at first but I managed to talk his companions at the hospital into giving me his family name."

"Family name?" Masao asked skeptically looking up from the paper. "I thought he was an orphan?"

Hiromasa shrugged. "I don't know the details maybe his parents died and there was nowhere left for him to go but the streets, maybe the orphanage told him before he ran away. I don't know his past and I haven't had the chance to talk to him personally but get this. His family name is _Uzumaki_."

"An Uzumaki…" Masao muttered thinking back to his days as a genin. He had heard of the red haired clan from Uzu. One that had been so terrifying that two major villages had banded together just to make sure they were completely wiped out no matter the cost. "How?"

"Don't know but it explains the reserves as well as how he survived who knows how long with an infected cut like that. My theory is that he's half Uzumaki though considering the hair color." Hiromasa explained.

"We can't let this out." Masao suddenly said after a moment. "As helpful to our forces as having the Uzumaki restart here could be it would be disastrous if word got out to Iwa or Kumo. We don't have the defenses to fight against an assault like that."

"I understand that." Hiromasa nodded having already considered the danger. "We can just tell him not to tell people his name. Not sure how well he'll listen but we can do damage control. Besides," he continued, "it's not like he's going to know Uzumaki sealing or anything. Hell the only person in the village to know anything about sealing is Hidan and well… he's not right in the head."

Masao sighed, "Hidan is perfectly capable of fulfilling his duties as a shinobi. Most jounin at the level you two are have strange quirks."

"Just saying…" Hiromasa muttered before shaking himself. "So I take it you no longer have any qualms about his potential as a ninja."

"No it's all very well." Masao sighed, he decided not to bring up the two vagabond the Uzumaki child brought with him. An Uzumaki among the ranks would be useful enough to ignore two nobodies. Perhaps they could increase the number of ninja with high chakra reserves within several years. Once the boy hit puberty they could gather some "samples"...

Masao spoke none of this out loud knowing Hiromasa would likely object to such a possibility. The man was old fashioned and traditional. Masao having not been raised among his somewhat distant relatives had no such concerns. The village had yet to recover from the third ward and some of the younger civilians on the village council were beginning to voice concerns of just how necessary a ninja force was when they could rely on one of the larger villages for aid.

"Dismissed Jounin Kuma." Masao told Hiromasa who bowed politely and left the office. He wondered how well adjusted an Uzumaki raised on the streets would be to village and potentially clan life if his plans worked out. Of course that was all in the future, for now his focus had best be on reviewing potential missions and mission reports. But despite this he could feel it in the air…

Times were changing.

* * *

 _Danzo POV, Root base…_

Danzo surveyed his soldiers training. After his operatives had failed to locate and return the Uzumaki child, he had begun increasing his recruitment rate having gained recruits from the Aburame, Yamanaka, and even Hyuuga clans. He was suspicious of what had happened to the Kyuubi jinchuuriki though, the fact he could simply disappear from the shinobi of Konoha without a trace was concerning.

He had not gained as many as he wanted from the Aburame and Yamanaka settling for a single recruit from each but had gained multiple from the Hyuuga which was a _very_ beneficial development. It seemed that some parents from the branch clan were willing to part with their children rather than allow them to be branded. Of course some "accidents" had to occur to those families soon after but the children would never know that nor would he rest of the clan know anything was amiss beyond a tragic accident.

Danzo had begun extending his recruitment from Konoha as well. He could only take so many orphans before the civilians started to realize something was amiss and while Hiruzen understood the necessity of Root there was no doubt in Danzo's mind that his old rival would more than happily decrease his power.

Just thinking about it made Danzo feeling like sneering in disgust. Had the old coot forgotten just how high tensions with the Uchiha clan were right now? Or the fact that the village currently held no Jinchuuriki nor bijuu?

Never before had a major village found themselves without their tailed beast. Oh the beasts had exchanged hands before. The seven tails was once controlled by Suna but captured by Taki, a minor village no less, during the second shinobi world war. But a village completely lacking their tailed beast had never occurred before.

It frustrated Danzo to no end that the first hokage had been naive enough to share the bijuu among the five major villages to help "maintain peace." His sensei, the second hokage would never have allowed such a thing were he in power at that time. If Danzo himself had been the one with all the tailed beasts under his power he would have used them to force the other villages into submission and leave Danzo as the supreme power in the elemental nations.

But alas this was not to be and Konoha now found itself defenseless against an assault with jinchuuriki leading the assault. The two most capable fuuinjutsu users were both killed in the Kyuubi's rampage, one of them more or less killed to _start_ the rampage and the other to put an end to it.

Danzo himself only dabbled in such arts, having learned the seal used on his soldiers and not pursuing the knowledge any further. However, in recent times he had begun looking into it again, more specifically the theories involved around sealing large amount of chakra in living things.

If Hiruzen knew what he was planning he likely would have Root disbanded and Danzo put on probation until further notice. But the fact was that Konoha had no bijuu to act as a deterrent to other villages and if word got out he had no doubt that Iwa would attempt to take advantage of that fact.

The only concern he currently held was how to successfully capture a tailed beast. The six tails might be the best bet due to its jinchuuriki's missing nin status. The fact of the matter remained however that they had no successful way to subdue the jinchuuriki's demonic chakra.

Kinoe or Tenzo or whatever he was calling himself now had the Mokuton but he was out of Danzo's reach and under Hiruzen's eye now which left Danzo with one other option, one that he most certainly did not like in any way.

After all, there was only one man who had successfully recreated the first hokage's legendary ability.

Orochimaru, the Snake Sannin. Konoha's most notorious missing nin.

Danzo knew the man's reasons for leaving and if it were up to him such events would have never been allowed to pass. Tensions between Orochimaru and the Third hokage had been rising ever since he was passed over for the title of Fourth Hokage. The experiment that created Tenzo and left fifty nine children dead, however, had been the last straw between the sannin and his sensei.

Orochimaru was still willing to negotiate with Danzo thankfully due to their dealings in the past. Support Konoha were war to break out once more, never, but they held a mutual respect for eachother while no doubt plotting how best to murder the other.

Danzo loathed the idea of being forced to contact him yet again and attempting to have mokuton yet again recreated but he had no choice as of this moment. Potentially after all his experimentation the snake sannin may have a way to give others the ability to use it without being forced to start from scratch. If such a procedure were not possible Danzo would be forced to look into other means to capture a jinchuuriki and bijuu.

When such a time came to pass he would have the bijuu drawn out and then find a way to create a reasonable explanation for their container's death. He already captured children daily, it would not be too difficult to find an infant for usage as a container and then train it as a root operative.

The only question was whether the infant would survive the process and how to insure it did. Perhaps some "selective breeding" could be applied. Danzo did have females among his ranks who would submit themselves to such a procedure without question. He would like to avoid such a thing however due to the fact that it would leave him with one less operative for a time.

He would cross that bridge when he got to it though. He still needed to know whether or not he would have wood release on his side when he ordered his capture mission.

With a nod of approval towards the foundation member in charge of the underground training field Danzo turned and limped away to begin writing a missive to the snake sannin. The sooner he came into communication with the S-rank nukenin the better.

But even as the sounds of sparring faded until the only noise was the clacking of his cane on the stone floor, Danzo could not help but wonder.

Whatever did happen to Uzumaki Naruto?

* * *

 **And done!**

 **That was an interesting chapter to write.**

 **So lot's of things set in motion by Naruto's running away. Forces working in the background of things. Both in Yu and in Konoha.**

 **As for Naruto not meeting Kurama, his seal hasn't begun breaking down at all. It hasn't had a need to until now that his life was in danger. My theory is that the bars that we're used to seeing in the show are essentially the last bit of strength the seal has to keep back the Kyuubi.**

 **Masao is an OC and I made up most of the stuff about Yu, because let's face it there's not much about it in the show. Hidan is from there and it was a ninja village that later became a tourist trap. I had to start somewhere…**

 **To make things clear, Masao is not a good person, and is clearly a bit snobbish. He is a minor character and once everything is said and done will have only had a small effect on the overall plot.**

 **We'll find out more about how things are going over in Yu next chapter. We won't here from Konoha for several chapters though, might look into it around the Uchiha massacre. I dislike how stories which involve Naruto leaving at a young age rarely look back to see how things have changed. Hinata for instance, who knows what she's like without Naruto to look up to!**

 **Anyway, review time!**

 **Scarease: Yeah infections are not fun. Even a small one will make you miserable.**

 **Shinobi of the Hidden Leaf: Yeah I like the idea of him having a fox that isn't, well, Kurama or a summon because those ideas are way overused. And yeah it's an infected cut.**

 **TroublesomeFox21: Growing up on the streets is a harsh way to make someone grow up fast. Unfortunately they only know what they have learned so they lack knowledge of common things and no one to ask. Sorry no Kurama yet. **

**NarutoAdmirer21: Glad you liked it so much. If you don't know who Yoku is based off though remember that the hint is in the name. Once you figure that out it's pretty obvious if you've watched the anime.**

 **Well that's all folks. Until next we meet!**

 **Bye.**

 **~FriTik**

 **R &R**


	6. Life Goes On

**So hey guys. How ya doing?**

 **I'm doing great. Yep. Nothing wrong at all.**

 **Well… there is one tiny little thing I would like to get off my chest.**

 **Stop telling me how to write my story.**

 **Seriously.**

 **Giving me an idea for what to do next is fine. Complaining that you don't like something and that I shouldn't do that and what I should do instead is another matter entirely. For the most part, reviews mention one thing they don't like and that's it, that's fine I like getting feedback. PMs on the other hand and you know who you are…**

 **Just quit it. And if you can't bring yourself to avoid telling me why I'm doing it wrong and I should do this instead, at least** _ **try**_ **to be polite about it. I swear I get one more asshole spamming caps lock on my PM…**

 **Sorry if I'm coming off as a bit pissed but I really am ticked off. I am a firm believer that if you want something written right, you write it yourself. Hell, that's where a lot of my stories came from, this one for Naruto running away, Village Idiots for semi crack humor, Sealed Away for Naruto coming from a slightly different heritage.**

 **I have come across many,** _ **many**_ **stories in which the author took it in a direction I did not enjoy. So what did I do? I respected their choices on the matter because guess what? It is** _ **their story**_ **, not mine. They did not ask me to tell them where to take their work and I have no right to do so.**

 **So you may suggest an idea to me, or mention how I could have done something differently but do not freaking demand it.**

 **For the record most of you reviewers are fine it's the people who decide to PM me about this stuff that drive me crazy. Again that doesn't mean all PM senders just the ones being assholes about it.**

 **Onto less serious matters, storytime!**

* * *

 _Naruto POV, Yu Medical Center…_

Yugakure no Sato did not have a proper hospital as it turned out. It had never been a large village and recent peacetimes had not required the construction of one. During the previous shinobi wars the minor villages had looked to the major ones they allied with for medical support. It did not mean that no one in the village knew medical jutsu, it just meant that there was no particular focus on it.

Knowing that the medical capabilities of the village were low (although not explained in as many words), Naruto could not help but wonder why he felt no guilt for grabbing the object he was currently twirling between if fingers. He actually had no idea what it did, he just knew it was shiny and that before he knew what he was doing he had slipped it out of the doctor's pocket and hidden it under the sheets of his bed. The doctor had fortunately failed to see him move, more than likely due to the fact he was a normal civilian rather than a shinobi.

He had never felt bad for stealing in the past but he always thought that was because he needed to steal to survive. Well at least that was what he thought about it now that he put some proper consideration into it. If he had not stolen the money or food people so generously allowed him to take there was no way he could have survived this long in life. He would have died of starvation or some other unpleasant thing.

So how come now that he was in a reasonably safe place and his life was looking away from requiring him to go scrounging for survival that he still felt the familiar rush of success and pride when he took something from someone?

Rationally he knew that it did not make any sense. He would hate it if someone were to take what was his. That was why he had immediately asked for his orange bag once he had calmed down from that… weird nightmare.

Naruto paused his twirling and stare at the medical utensil in his hands inspecting his marred reflection with a bit of amusement that quickly disappeared. He had never had a nightmare before then, heck he couldn't even remember the last time he had a dream. The nurse lady had explained that it could have been brought on by his near death experience. That was sobering in more ways than one.

He had almost died.

Heck, according to what he heard the staff muttering when they thought he was out of earshot his heart _had stopped beating_. Naruto was no expert on human anatomy or medicine but he was fairly certain that was not supposed to happen. It quickly restarted evidently, he was not sure of the details surrounding his arrival and recovery. He had apparently been here for about a week now, and had been unconscious for five days. The only reason he was still here was because he was so young and they wanted to make sure there would be no serious side effects in the years to come.

Naruto had never put much thought into his death before waking up here and being told just how close to it he came. Apparently his cut had been an infected injury which, untreated, could be deadly. All his life he had been focused on staying alive despite the odds, older kids at the orphanage bullying him while the workers encouraged it, getting the food and other necessities of life he needed to survive on the street. He had never considered the possibility of failure, of _not_ surviving.

He physical gave himself a good shake, while mentally berating himself for that line of thought. Thinking about death now would not do him any good, if he had considered the danger it could bring every step of his journey up until now, he probably would have never left his old home. Admittedly death was always there lurking just out of sight but he was not going to think about that right now. Nor did he want to think about it, like, ever. Though he probably would not be able to stop himself from doing so once it came for him and… no bad thoughts.

It was then he noticed he had begun twirling the metal object yet again. Funny, he had not even noticed he was doing so until he saw his hands in the process.

After a moment of reevaluation Naruto recalled what he had been thinking about. He was still robbing people and it felt _good_. He enjoyed taking things that did not belong to him. Yet were the situation to be reversed, he would jealously protect his own possessions from all those who might seek to take them from him.

Maybe that was it though, he thought as puzzle pieces began to fall together. That was why he took things from people, because if they did not properly protect their property then they had no right to hold onto it. It would be much better taken care of in his own hands rather than those who would allow it to be stolen so easily. After all, if they truly cared about what they owned surely they would take better care of it?

Then again maybe he should not just take everything that happens to catch his eye. He idly inspected the object that seemed to demand the attention of his hands. Seriously he had just robbed a doctor, who had been checking up on him to make sure he was healthy. Maybe he should only take the valuable stuff that people failed to properly protect.

The hospital staff had told him he would be allowed to leave today, from there he was supposed to head to the Shinobi Headquarters to meet the guy who had pointed him towards Yu in the first place. The really big and kind of scary ninja guy who had vaguely threatened his well being during their previous meeting. He was having trouble remembering his name, something about bears?(1)

As it would happen he was not the only one who had met the shinobi now. His traveling companions had brought up that he had stopped by while Naruto was unconscious. At first hearing that Naruto had felt a tad embarrassed about his condition. But as it turned out the bear man had been impressed that he was even alive. Which just goes to show, again, just how close Naruto had come to actually dying.

Speaking of traveling companions, he had been somewhat surprised at the concern that Tayuya and Yoku had shown for him. He had attempted to rationalize it at first. Yoku was obviously worried about permanently losing his meal-ticket. As for Tayuya… well she probably just needed someone to make fun of.

But then another thought occurred to him, what if, and that was a pretty big "if", they actually _liked_ him?

Naruto had never really had anyone like him before. He had seen what it meant for someone to like another, albeit always from a distance. From what he could tell it required giving a damn about their existence and whether or not they were happy or safe. The most common term for this condition of like (which remained below the term for the condition of love, family) was friends. It was a foreign word on his tongue, in fact he had never actually uttered it out loud, only ever thought it.

But, as odd as it was for him to consider having friends, he had no better word for what Tayuya and Yoku were to him. They had been concerned for his livelihood after he had nearly died and had stuck through it. So he found himself asking would he feel the same way if the situation was reversed. If it was Tayuya or Yoku potentially dying and him being the healthy one, what would he do then?

Lost in his thoughts, Naruto absentmindedly flicked the metal object in the air the light reflected off it briefly shining in his eyes forcing him to squint. He winced slightly when the blunt end landed on his leg.

He sighed and ignored the light pressure the object was causing. Instead he chose to lean back into his pillows. He couldn't help but let out a slight giggle, it was _impossibly_ comfortable. Never before in his life had he ever slept on anything as comfortable as this bed. He felt as though he could just get lost in these incredibly fluffy pillows. The nurse who had checked on him when he first woke up had been surprised at his question of "why are these so comfy?", but she had dutifully answered anyway. Feathers as it turned out, made amazingly comfy pillows.

He had already decided that if wherever he ended up living did not have feather pillows already he was going to steal one. Forget about gold, jewels and abnormally large piles of cash, clearly pillows were the most valuable object on the planet.

After allowing himself to sink into the soft comfort for a few minutes Naruto regretfully forced himself to abandon the walls of comfort and pull the covers off the bed. While he was unconscious, someone (he assumed the medical staff) had changed him out of his old clothes and put him in some sort of pajamas made of a light material in a very boring color. Why could not they have at least given him orange ones?

He turned himself in bed so his feet were hanging over the edge. It was a large bed, made with an adult in mind and certainly not a five year old child. He had to scoot forward to properly sit at its edge and even then the floor seemed a long way down. Being short sucked, but he would not allow that to get him down. He focused on his goal, the cabinet where the last nurse to stop by had told him his clothes had been placed. She also mentioned that his seemed a little old and ratted and he should consider getting new ones.

Naruto scowled at this memory. He didn't need new clothes, his worked just fine. He did feel somewhat attached to them after all. Consider they were the same clothes he had run from Konoha in. Oh he had purchased new apparel occasionally but they were his go to clothes. A pair of orange shorts, a white t-shirt and a worn pair of sandals.

A brief shiver went through him as his bare feet hit the cold floor. How the heck did it get that cold, wasn't it late spring right now? Nevertheless he stood up on somewhat shaky legs and stumbled forward. Darnit, how was he supposed to become a super awesome ninja if he could barely walk a few steps to the cabinet?

The fact that he had been confined to a bed for the past week after contracting a life threatening condition may have more than a little to do with it. But Naruto was more concerned with being able to walk properly rather than why he was _unable_ to walk properly.

Yet despite his current disabilities he still managed to lurch his way over to the cabinet and after giving it a sharp tug was able to view the inside. It was quite fortunate it was not locked, otherwise he would have looked quite silly pulling on a door that simply refused to open. Maybe he should have learned how to pick locks at some point. Oh well, at least it was not causing any problems right now.

Upon seeing what was inside however Naruto found himself blinking in surprise. They certainly _looked_ like his clothes, but there was something that was… off, about them. For one they were actually folded. He could not remember the last time his clothes had ever been neatly folded like that, well, that is if there even was a last time. The other problem with them was that they didn't, well, they didn't _smell_ right, as weird as it was to say such a thing it was the only thing he could think of.

As long as he could remember his clothes had smelled like him. Oh there were other smells that got mixed in as time went on, but they had just become mixed in with his own eventually. Either they stuck or they got washed away by the rain or rather his own less than effective attempts at washing them in the past.

But now, now they just smelled… wrong.

It wasn't a bad smell really. It was just strong and wrong. Had they been washed properly by the staff of the medical facility? If so that would explain a few things, such as why they no longer had any stains on them, and why they were wrong.

Unfortunately Naruto did not have any other options for clothing. Well apart from the teal colored pajamas he was currently wearing.

With a feeling of dissatisfaction flowing through him Naruto reluctantly pulled out his now apparently _clean_ clothes. His footing now slightly more stable than it was when he had first stood up he began walking over to the side bathroom to get some privacy in case anyone decided to walk in. He only paused briefly to grab the metal object off the bed.

It was apparent to him that civilized life was going to take some getting used to.

* * *

 _Some Time Later…_

"Shithead we needed to go five minutes ago." Tayuya deadpanned at him with a mild hint of annoyance.

"Shhh." Naruto frantically shushed the girl nervously glancing out the door. "We're being watched, 'ttebayo." He hissed in paranoia.

"You're right." Yoku agreed nodding along. "But that's probably because you're making a scene by refusing to step out the door and the fact we have no adult supervision." He explained.

"Not them." Naruto hissed at him, ignoring the moderate gathering of people who were either staring at the group or occasionally shooting them confused glances. "Can't you sense it?"

But considering the glares he got from his companions they did not sense the imminent danger that awaited them outside that door.

"Alright shithead, I'm done with your bullshit." Tayuya finally growled, cracking her knuckles.

"Be gentle with him tomato head. Remember what happened last time you tried to kill him? You nearly succeeded." Yoku pointed out before she could do anything overly violent to the small blonde boy.

So it was that in a turn of good fortune (for Naruto anyway) Yoku had brought up a rather sore spot for Tayuya that had come up during the past week. A sore spot that had come up multiple times in the past week and had proven to be a great source of anger in the red headed girl for some reason. Of course no one liked being called names based on their appearance but Tayuya's anger is a bit hypocritical in this situation. This being due to the fact her two male traveling companions were labeled as "Shithead" and "Shithead Two."

"What did I tell you about that name Shithead Two?" Her voice had a tone that promised murder if she was not appeased.

"Well if you told me your name I wouldn't have to call you tomato head…" Yoku prompted looking at her expectantly. However this proclamation had garnered the shocked attention of both Naruto and Tayuya.

"What the fuck do you mean you don't know my name?" She asked, feeling far too surprised to manage to sound angry about it. Because whatever she had been expecting from the other boy, claiming to not know her name was not it.

"It's not like anyone told me." he muttered crossing his arms and pouting.

"I don't believe you." Naruto immediately told him. "Even if neither of us actually told you, we must've said it around you at some point." He claimed.

"If you did I wasn't paying attention." Yoku brushed them off almost absentmindedly and then looked back out the door once more. "Now, are we going to leave or not, because as 'nameless girl who is in no way related to a tomato' said, we need to go."

Tayuya glared at the con artist but said nothing at the matter and instead just firmly grasped Naruto's arm and dragged him outside. Despite his slowly weakening protests on the matter. He could feel it now, the watching. Something was watching them!

"Please!" He begged Tayuya mustering up his courage as he felt their mysterious watcher closing in. "It's coming!" He wailed dramatically purposely trying to create a scene. Hopefully someone would take pity on him and once he explained the situation save them!

Unfortunately for Naruto's sanity, to all onlookers on the street the situation appeared quite differently. Anyone who bothered to pay attention to the screaming child just thought he was a particularly ill behaved younger brother who did not want to listen to his sister. It is said that people see what they want to see after all…

"It's here!" Naruto cried suddenly and Tayuya finally stopped and allowed him to grovel begging for mercy.

"What's here shithead?" She asked with a put-upon sigh, giving into his dramatics.

"Yip!"

"There!" Naruto pointed at the noise. Yoku and Tayuya turned and quickly found what it was that had been "watching" them and causing Naruto such distress.

"Oh is he still hanging around?" Yoku muttered in surprise as Tayuya face palmed.

"Shithead. It's just your stupid fox. Why are you so worried about it?" She glared at Naruto.

"We still don't know why he was following us." He hissed at her. "He might be planning to take our stuff."

"For fuck's sake, it's a fox you idiot." The way Tayuya's hand twitch indicated just how much she wanted to hit him right about now.

"But I heard dogs could be trained to bring things to people. So you know how foxes are like dogs right? And then he just showed up in the middle of the night with no explanation. Why else would he do that?" Naruto explained his reasoning. He tried his hardest to ignore the adorably happy little fox bouncing around at his feet looking as happy as a fox could be to see him.

Yoku was the one to respond. "You really are paranoid aren't you?"

"Am not!" Naruto declared feeling somewhat offended. What they think he was, one of those tinfoil hat guys who hid out in basements to hide from the mind reading blonde people? He had heard about them back in Konoha. He had met one once too but as soon as the pale subterranean dweller had laid eyes upon him he had immediately began panicking and begging something called Cthulhu to "not let the demon get him."

Yeah, total weirdos. Why would anyone think he was a demon?

"Prove it." Tayuya demanded crossing his arms and looking at him expectantly.

How could he prove it? Naruto thought about that, he didn't want the people who could quite possibly be his friends to think he was one of those paranoid weirdos but how did he prove his innocence of such to them? He glanced down at the little fox who looked up at him with those big wide eyes…

Saying nothing he simply scooped up the fox kit, who yipped in surprise but did nothing to stop him from picking him up. He awkwardly held the little creature at first trying to move his arms so that the small, rust colored animal would be comfortable in his arms.

"See nothin' wrong with me!" He grinned at them. Okay maybe he had taken it a bit too far about the fox but he remembered those big monster dogs walking around Konoha with those scary looking ninja. He couldn't just take the chance that the fox was working for someone else who was after his money.

"There are lot's of thing wrong with you." Yoku commented but didn't press the issue. "Put the fox down and let's go." He jabbed a thumb in the direction of a large and round building made of wood and stone.

Naruto nodded and let the fox kit slip to the ground. The three of them quickly started on their way with the fox trailing along behind them. All in all, a very similar situation to the trip to Yu in the first place. Probably because it wasn't like anything had really changed, much that is. But Naruto couldn't help but look at his companions with a bit of a new light.

He remembered his earlier thoughts about them caring enough about him to make sure he was okay. The question of whether he would do the same for them came into his mind once again. They had been there for him before and would probably be there for him again. If that was the case then wouldn't it be proper for him to do the same thing for them?

He thought about it for a moment. Naruto would freely admit to himself he liked being around both Tayuya and Yoku. Sure, Tayuya would call him names and swear a lot but for the most part she had his best interests in mind when dealing with him. As for Yoku, despite the fact that the other boy drained his food stores he couldn't help but imagine that he was a fairly accurate representation of what a brother might be like. True he had no idea how brothers might actually act around each other but he believed that while they might drive each other up the walls in the end they would stick up for the other.

They had cared enough to be worried for him so he could do the same for them. It was only fair after all. He liked being around them and would miss them if they were gone. Naruto couldn't even imagine trying to make the journey here on his own and without any other aid. He would have probably got himself lost and would have never been heard from again.

So yeah, they were his friends. And he because they were his friends he could rely on them to be there for him and he would make sure to be there for them.

That was something he could live with, he decided as he quickly pick-pocketed a nearby pedestrian.

* * *

 _Yu Shinobi Headquarters, Department of Recruitment…_

"...so you were recommended by Kuma Hiromasa, is that correct?" The skinny man looked down his nose at the trio with a hint of distaste, as though he had just swallowed something particularly unpleasant but was attempting to be polite to his host nonetheless.

"Yep." Naruto nodded vigorously popping the "P." It had taken hearing the man's name again to properly remember it but that was definitely the guy who had picked him up by the collar and told him where to become a ninja.

"So three academy students and a nin-animal partner." The man muttered to himself as he jotted down the information on the scroll in front of him. The writing making an unpleasant scratching noise that Naruto found somewhat annoying. His annoyance, however, was drowned out by the barely contained joy that he was finally going to become a ninja. Or at the very least start learning how to become one anyway.

But while Naruto was caught up in his own excitement and Tayuya seemed to be celebrating in her own way of having a creepy smile on her face and being lost in her own thoughts, Yoku had noticed something else the man had said.

"Wait what did you say about a nin-animal?" Yoku inquired looking up and into the man's eyes. Or at least that is what could be assumed. It was hard to tell due to fact the boy preferred to squint so much. But that did nothing to bring down the validity of the question.

"The fox." The career chunin pointed at the little animal, where it sat next to Naruto's leg. "Are you telling me you three just brought a wild animal in here?" The way he said it hinted at the fact that it was a very improper thing to do.

"No!" Tayuya quickly said while Naruto and Yoku rapidly shook there heads in a show of denial. "Of course we wouldn't do that."

"Hmmm…" The recruitment officer gave them a long, hard stare that said way too much about what he was thinking. "Well the fact still stands I'm going to need your names' for your identification cards and your files." He told them.

"Uzumaki Naruto!" Naruto introduced himself proudly.

"Tayuya." The redhead said neutrally but with a hint of pride.

"Yoku!" The junior con artist said happily, although not with the sheer radiance of excitement that Naruto exhumed.

"And the fox?" The man inquired as he finished scrawling Yoku's name at the top of his file.

The trio's eyes widened and they shot each other glances. In all there time traveling with the fox kit and talking about just how come they had a fox following them around like a lost puppy, they had never given any thought to naming him. A bit lacking in the politeness department but they had other concerns at the time like what had been going on with Naruto and his arm. Now that they actually were being confronted about it they were somewhat at a loss.

"I'm waiting." The man said in a rather snide tone. Naruto was still riding his excitement high but this guy was making it difficult to stay happy. Actually, no he wasn't going to let this nobody decide how Naruto felt today. So without conversing with Tayuya or Yoku about it and making a scene that this man could just sneer at Naruto made up his mind.

"Dorobō.(2)" He pronounced looking up at the man with a defiant smile. "His name is Dorobō."

The recruiter glared at him but said nothing. "Very well then." he let out an overly drawn at sigh as he jotted down the name on the fourth file and then tucked it into Naruto's own file. "I'll go get your identification cards, stay here. And don't touch anything."

"What? " Yoku asked sounding aghast. "Us? Touch things?" He shook his head in shame. "I'm disappointed you think so lowly of us."

"Hn" The man grunted at them, which gave Naruto a feeling of déjà vu, and then left the room without another word, at which point his friends turned to Naruto with questioning, albeit not accusing, looks.

"Dorobō?" Tayuya questioned almost looking like she was trying not to snicker.

"It seemed like it fit." Naruto grinned and patted the recently christened Dorobō on the head and got a happy yip in response. "Considering." He added.

"I don't have a problem with it." Yoku decided looking like he agreed.

"Yeah why the fuck not?" Tayuya shrugged and pushed herself up onto a nearby seat. "What the hell was that guy's problem?" She asked the two boys.

"Who knows?" Yoku responded with a rhetorical question and gave a shrug.

Fortunately for them, and perhaps for the well being of the financial states of those nearby, the recruitment officer soon returned with the identification cards as well as a map.

"There are your cards." he handed each of them there care as well as what looked like a dog tag for Dorobō. " _Do not lose them_." He forcefully told them. "You need them to get into the academy, we don't just let every no name street urchin become shinobi."

None the trio responded to the thinly veiled insult and just accepted their cards graciously. Even Tayuya knew better than to cause trouble with this guy even if he was being a jerk about things. After all, if she caused a problem she might find herself lacking the card or files she needed to become a kunoichi.

He then gave Tayuya, being the oldest, the map he had been carrying. "This is a map to the academy. It has a number of other useful places marked on it." He said in a tone that just screamed the fact that he had repeated this many time before. "With it you will be able to find affordable accommodations as well as other necessities such as where to get food from. You will also note that marked on it are several of our village's hot springs, for which it has been named. Feel free to visit at your nearest convenience."

"We'll be sure to do that." Yoku told him smiling before turning away. "Come on let's go find somewhere to live. I'm tired of living in a crate."

"You lived in a crate?" Naruto asked surprised as he followed along behind. He had never actually seen Yoku's place of living back in Pallet. He was rather surprised at how casually it was mentioned.

"It was a big crate." Yoku defended absently, clearly not too interested in talking about it. "Hey rude-girl, try not to take us on any shortcuts this time." He told Tayuya as she inspected the map.

"It's a village, this is completely different circumstances." She shot at him before turning back to the map.

"And for fuck's sake my name is Tayuya."

* * *

 **That's all for now folks!**

 **Yes three updates on the same story, in a row. Next week I promise will be something else. Most likely Sealed Away.**

 **So this chapter was primarily focused on building Naruto's character and his relationships with his friends. He's never had a friend before so he's a bit confused on how the whole process works, but he's trying.**

 **Now I'll say it again this story** _ **will have OCs**_ **. It needs them to work properly. That's not to say there will be a lack of canon characters but Yu doesn't have too many of them other than Hidan and Kazan, (who is debatably canon because he was only in a movie [also I don't like that movie]).**

 **Which means unfortunately I will use OCs for the part they're in Yu for. Some might stick around after Yu, others won't it really depends.**

 **References:**

 **(1): Kuma translates to Bear.**

 **(2):** **Dorobō means thief hence the reactions.**

 **Review time!**

 **Elainaparker: You got it in one!**

 **Twisted Pxl: Yeah alerts got messed up but they're working again now. Also I understand why you might now like Naruto leaving Konoha but think about it from his point of view. He has no real positive relationships with anyone there, he's barely surviving day in and day out, and practically everyone hates him for reasons he doesn't understand. This story was always about Naruto running away from Konoha, even before I decided to make him a thief.**

 **Scarease: At this point in time the seal is still very strong. In the last chapter we saw it start to break down as it saved his life from the infection. Also don't need cultists for Jashin. I have… plans.**

 **: Yeah, that's not happening. Waayy too crackish. I got other plans for the rampage. And it won't be funny. At all. I mean I could make that an Omake but I doubt it.**

 **Drakon45: That's the point of it being Yu. I mentioned it in a previous note but Yu stops being a ninja village by the time canon starts. Naruto is there because I want him to know how to use chakra and to have some basic fighting skills. Also because character development.**

 **That's the end everyone. Shows over. Go out. Watch Guardians of the Galaxy 2. I was entertained.**

 **Bye for now!**

 **~FriTik**

 **R &R**


	7. Slice of Life

**Howdy folks it's time for chapter seven!**

 **Side note, I had the "honor" of acting as a counselor for a bunch of seven and eight year olds and let me tell you…**

 **Kids are exhausting.**

 **It's not that they were bad kids or anything, I enjoyed working with them! It's just they were, exhausting. I would literally come home and just pass out for a few hours each day. I almost missed my wednesday update because of this fact.**

 **I suppose this was helpful because it gives me a better idea of how kids around that age are supposed to act. I mean, Tayuya's right at that age and Naruto and Yoku will get there eventually.**

 **This chapter is more filler than anything else but it introduces a few characters for the Yugakure no Sato arc.**

 **Anyway, no more distractions, let's get to the chapter!**

* * *

 _Naruto POV, Three Weeks Later…_

It was quite an astounding discovery that Naruto came to in the weeks following his release from the Hospital. It was an incredibly mind blowing prospect for him to know and coming to the realization took up many hours of his valuable time. When the discovery was first made, he immediately went to Tayuya and Yoku to share his findings. One them brushed him off in a rude fashion and the other humored him briefly. Neither, however, took what he had learned very seriously.

This life changing, earth shattering realization was…

Being normal was boring.

Or perhaps a better way to put it would be to say that, having a _routine_ is boring.

During his time in his previous homes, Konoha and Pallet, Naruto had some rituals that needed to be repeated daily but they were only small portions of the day and failed to take up much time in the long run. His day to day life had varied greatly and added some spice to his life. It was a bit of an open door philosophy really, he would take whatever opportunity opened itself up to him. He took the chance to first leave Konoha, and then to later leave Pallet and come to Yu.

But now that he had finally found stability in his life, Naruto found it was getting rather dull.

That wasn't to say that it was a bad life at all. Himself, Tayuya and Yoku had managed to find some affordable housing, that also allowed pets of course. Speaking of Dorobō, as it turned out, taking care of a young fox was a bit more trouble than initially theorized. Especially the house training part. The first few days involved various shoutings such as;

"No! Not on the carpet!"

"Holditholditholditholdit! Aww man.."

"Get off the table you damn fox." (Guess who said that one.)

Being three minors and a fox, the trio was not expected to pay for their own housing until they had been made Genin and would be able to pay for it themselves with the money they receive from missions. Until such a point was reached, they would receive a weekly allowance that was to be used to pay for the rent, groceries and any other necessities. To pay back the money, once they became Genin ten percent of what they make from missions would be taken to pay back the money plus interest.

Obviously such an agreement had not been studied properly by any lawyer or other government official who may have been able to act as either advisor, or guardian for the children and so there were going to be difficulties in the future. The largest factor being that none of the children would be allowed to leave Yu's ninja force until such time as they had fully paid back the amount they owed. Kind of like indentured servants, only they got paid while they worked.

The details were beyond the point though, Naruto nor the others really cared about the specifics at this point of their lives. All that mattered was that they were going to become ninja!

But the academy semester had not started yet and would not start for another two weeks. The trio was sharing a simple two bedroom apartment, the boys in one room and Tayuya in another. Naruto had initially complain about this because while he considered Yoku a friend he oddly felt more comfortable sharing a room with Tayuya. It might have something to do with the idea of Yoku watching him while he slept.

The days became filled with cleaning house, playing board games and the occasional grocery shopping. Naruto felt somewhat guilty for thinking it, but he honestly missed the days on the streets. When everyday was exciting, and filled with some sort of challenge.

He still pickpocketed people when he went out, but it was quick and at this point there was almost no challenge to it. Naruto had long since learned how to deftly slip a hand into a pocket and steal a wallet. He wanted something more exciting, but he had no excuse to do something more exciting.

For now, he would put up with his boredom but he knew he was going to break eventually. It was only a matter of time.

At this point in time he was pacing in the room that he and Yoku shared. He did not want to play a board game right now, Yoku had taken Dorobō to a place called the "Vet" to get some shots or something. Naruto didn't quite understand the logic in it but apparently it was to keep the little fox healthy in future years.

Briefly, he paused his pacing to check on the chest at the foot of his bed. Underneath a layer of blankets to keep it hidden from prying eyes was his collection of savings. Now covering the layer of Ryo were the wallets of his victims, which he had recently begun collecting. Maybe not the best idea in the case of someone coming to investigate. But no one had come complaining to him about the recent string of robberies so it was likely no one would ever come looking. Still better safe than sorry.

Digging a bit under the wallets he pulled out a wad of cash and counted out enough for the item he had seen in the market a day prior. He had thought about making an impulse buy and getting it right there, but more than a year of living on the streets had long since imbued the idea of proper economics into his mind. So he had withheld from buying it right there and then.

The item in question was something quite simple really. Well, simple in concept, the actual contraption itself was quite a bit more complicated that the idea behind it. But that was the way that Naruto wanted it. The thing he wanted to buy, was a lock for his chest of pilfered goods.

True, it would be a simple matter to remove via smashing it if someone was truly desperate to get into it. But the noise made during the removal would more than likely be enough to catch the attention of anyone in the apartment at the time and cause them to quickly come to the source of the noise.

Tayuya was in her room right now doing what she called "things that shitheads aren't allowed to do." which frankly, Naruto found somewhat insulting. He knew that she liked to call him a shithead but that didn't mean he was a shithead. Also, he still had no idea what the term "shithead" actually meant apart from being a derogatory comment that Tayuya had somehow turned into a tentatively affectionate term.

Now the words affectionate and Tayuya probably did belong in a sentence together unless the words; "is not," were separating them. But from Naruto had learned of the older girl, that was how she showed people she cared. What he didn't know however is that Tayuya had spent her early years near the docks of a town further south before she had made her way to Pallet. Due to growing up around sailors and former sailors, swearing was the only way she knew how to communicate with the people she cared about, or strangers. Or anyone really.

On his way out Naruto happened to run into their landlord, or landlady rather. Her name was Aneko and she was one of the villages many career chunin. She had never really achieved in her ninja career and her promotion had been less earned and more one of necessity as Masao and some of the other higher up shinobi force members felt it would be bad for the village's image if they had too many twenty-something year old genin whose careers' obviously were not going anywhere.

She had a bit of an aloof attitude to most of her tenants, but she treated them all fairly. And she was sure to be polite to them when she saw them. Honestly due to her tentative position she did not get sent out on too many missions, not that Yu got many missions these days. Most of them filtered through to the major villages.

"Hello Naruto where are you going all by yourself?" She asked nicely. Tendency to be aloof or not, she was still keeping an eye the youngest of her tenants. They were just little kids after all and she didn't want them to end up killing themselves somehow.

"I'm jus' going to the market, 'ttebayo." Naruto said, subconsciously pushing the wad of cash further down into his pocket. It may have been unnecessary but he couldn't help himself. Ms. Aneka may be nice, but he was nice too and that didn't stop him from stealing from people!

"But you just went to the market yesterday." She pointed out, she had no plans to stop him from leaving as technically it was not her business, but once again, he was just a little kid.

"I don' need food though." Naruto said already tapping his foot as he wanted to get back to moving. As long as he could remember he had always had trouble staying in one place and this was no different, even if he was talking to someone. "I jus' wanna get somethin' I saw yesterday!"

"Don't let me hold you up then." She stepped aside a bit and allowed him to continue on his way at faster pace. She allowed herself a small smile, he was a sweet kid, it was a shame he was planning on becoming a ninja. This career path unleashed the horrors of the world to those who walk its way far sooner than they deserved. Still, it was probably the best career for the kid to choose given his lot in life. Orphans tended to make better ninja after all.

Naruto, completely oblivious of the thoughts of his landlady, slowed to walk now that the streets began to become more crowded. Yu was probably about the same size of Pallet but it had a much different layout, more traditional buildings and the street layout was designed to accommodate the hots springs the village was named for.

He and Yoku had visited one about a week ago. It was nice he supposed. But he didn't completely understand the appeal of staying in the steaming hot water for long amounts of time, especially considering making too much noise was politely discouraged. That just made it boring, splashing water and having wave fights was much more fun!

Having returned to the store he had seen the lock at yesterday, he found that he had brought just enough ryo to pay for the device. Also he learned the official name for it was a "padlock" or at least that's the way it was spelled. He had never heard the word spoken aloud before, nor seen it written anywhere else.

It was in this establishment, that was filled with padlocks and other similar devices, that Naruto ran into an old friend, well, more of an acquaintance really. Actually to tell the truth was that they barely knew each other.

"YOU!" A voice shouted causing Naruto to jump and whirl towards the source in a panic. While he had never experienced it personally since his first foray into thievery, shouting meant you were caught. He had seen it happen to a kid once and he had never seen that kid again, he didn't want to think about what had happened to him.

"I didn't do nothin'! But I can point names and give fingers!" Okay, he might have messed that part up, but he certainly deserved credit for trying!

"I should have known you've been following me around all this time! I told sensei I wasn't crazy when I heard noises in the woods on the way home!" Hikari Satoshi declared. It took Naruto a minute to recognize him as the genin that he had followed back in Pallet before he had been discovered by Bear-guy.

"I wasn' followin' ya, 'ttebayo." Naruto told the older boy, clutching his purchase a bit tighter to his chest and tensing up. If he recalled correctly, their first meeting had led to this boy attempting to assassinate him for eating an apple!

"Well, why else would you be here? In the same store as me, in the same village as me!"

"I was buyin' this." Naruto held up the padlock. There was no reason to hide it and trying to hide what he was doing was the perfect way to gain suspicion. And while Naruto amy have wanted some excitement in his life, he certainly did not want to have any suspicion directed at him.

"Well, yes I can see that." Satoshi admitted, "But that doesn't answer my question!" He pointed accusingly at Naruto.

Their conversation had gained the attention of some of the other patrons of the store who were now either staring for those without manners, or trying to glance at them discreetly for those with manners.

Naruto had noticed the attention they were getting and figured that if there was ever a time for what he was about to do. It was now. He may never live it down, but as previously stated, the boy did not want any suspicion directed at him.

So he let the crocodile tears fall.

"Wah!" He cried forcing the tears out and barely restraining a grin, as he heard people whispering about Satoshi "making him cry," and about, "how rude the older boy was to make a little kid like that cry."

Satoshi, bless his soul, took a moment to understand what was happening. When he figured it out he made the "educated" decision to just shout out Naruto. "Hey cut it out would you! You're making a scene!"

Naruto took this as a cue to start crying louder.

Satoshi looked around and, upon seeing the disapproving looks of the adults, realized that he should probably get out of there.

"This isn't over you brat!" He grabbed Naruto's arm and quickly ran out of the building. While he was still a genin, he was still faster than most civilians and quickly got the two of them into a nearby alleyway, in which Naruto quickly killed off his crocodile tears and just smiled brightly at the older boy.

"You planned that." Satoshi muttered glaring at him.

"I didn' do nuthin'." Naruto commented in an almost teasing tone before starting to run off.

"Where do you think you're going!" Satoshi shouted at Naruto grabbing his arm to keep him from getting away. "I wasn't done questioning you!"

"I didn' follow you though!" Naruto whined, he just wanted to go home and try out his new padlock on his chest. Then his stuff would be safe!

"Then why are you here!" Satoshi demanded now sounding a bit angry.

"To become a ninja! Bear-guy said I could." Naruto told him still trying to get away.

"Bear guy- you mean Hiromasa-sensei?" Satoshi snickered. "Ha! Bear-guy!"

"Can I go home now?" Naruto asked pityingly, using the patented Hidden Child Art: Puppy Dog Eyes.

Satoshi grumbled a bit but let his arm go. Naruto immediately took off towards the apartment, glad to get away. He heard the genin's voice call after him. "And don't follow me anymore." But he ignored it in favor of going home. Also, to get as far away from the older boy as possible before he could discover that his wallet was missing.

After all, he had an idea for how to make life a bit more exciting.

* * *

 **I'm going to end it there. Not the longest chapter but it was more of filler than anything else. Also it set up next chapter.**

 **Speaking of next chapter, I feel like some of you might hate me for it but I've been putting if off long enough and I have no more excuses. As for what it is… you guys can wait until next time.**

 **Now then, time for reviews!**

 **Scarease: I'm not really sure what that means.**

 **Superwin: I feel like it's one of my better ideas to be honest.**

 **NarutoAdmirer21 : It is fairly amusing, just because something can be sad from one point of view does not mean it can't be funny from another!**

 **Steavatron: I remember People Lie, and honestly I feel that story has more psycho analysis than I could ever hope to manage. And wait no longer for the new chapter, because here it is.**

 **TubfullofDishes345: It's not quite soon but I finally give you the next chapter!**

 **Akira Desuu: To tell the truth I plan to have him learn a lot about thievery. Honestly this story is going to have a lot more cutthroat ninja stuff rather than the super power stuff. (I like both to be honest.) And I can guarantee that all your questions will (eventually) be answered!**

 **Well this chapter took about three months to get written. I should say sorry but honestly I've been busy with other stuff. Be glad this isn't Son Siblings. That's had almost a year with no updates.**

 **Wednesday's update will be either Gone Ghost or Sealed Away.**

 **Until next time, bye!**

 **~FriTik**

 **R &R**


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